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THE 



SECEET SEEVICE, 



THE FIELD, THE DUNGEON, 



THE ESCAPE. 



"Wherein I spoke of most disastrous cbancefl, 
Of moving accidents, by flood and field; 
Of hairbreadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breadi; 
Of beiBg taken by the insolent foe, 
And sold to slavery ; of my redemption thence." 

Othello. 



BY 



ALBERT D. RICHARDSON, 

TRIBUNE CORRESPONDENT. 



AMEEICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

JONES BROS. & CO., PHILADELPHIA, PA., AND CINCINNATI, OHIO. 

R. C. TREAT, CHICAGO, ILL. 

1865. 



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^b^' 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, 

By ALBERT D. EICHARDSON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 




c\ 



v\ 



TO 

WHO "WAS NEAREST AND DEAREST, 
"WHOSE LIFE "WAS FULL OF BEAUTY AND OF PEOMISB, 

THIS VOLUME 

IS TENDERLY INSCRIBED. 



irist nf SUustrutiniis, 



Page. 

I. PORTEAIT OP THE AUTHOR, ''■ 

2 " of Charles C. Coffin, Army Correspondent of the Boston 

Journal, ^ ' 

3_ <i of Junius H. Browne, Army Correspondent of the New York 

Tribune 17 

4 " of Thomas "VV. Knox, Army Correspondent of the New York 

Eercdd, 17 

5_ « of Richard T. Colburn, Army Correspondent of the New York 

World, 17 

g_ II of L. L. Crounse, Army Correspondent of the New York 

Times, 17 

7. " of Wilham E. Davis, Army Correspondent of the Cincinnati 

Gazette, 17 

8. " of "William D. Bickham, Army Correspondent of the Cincin- 

nati Commercial, 17 

9. The Mississippi Convention- tiewbd by a Tribune Correspondent, 80 
10. Opening op the Battle of Antietam. — General Hooker, 280 

II. Fac-sdiile op an Autograph Letter of President Lincoln, 321 

12. The Capture, while running the Rebel Batteries at Yicksburo, 344 

13. Interior View of a Hospital in the Salisbury Prison, 416 

14. The Massacre of Union Prisoners attempting to Escape from 

Salisbury,^ North Carolina, '^20 

15. Escaping Prisoners fed by Negroes in their Master's Barn, 440 

16. Fording a Stream, 472 

17. Portrait op Dan. Ellis, 488 

18. Portrait op " The Nameless Heroine," 496 

19. " The Nameless Heroine " piloting the Escaping Prisoners out of 

a Rebel Ambush • ^02 



CONTENTS. 



L— THE SECRET SERYICE. 

CHAPTER I. 

Going South ia the Secret Service. — Instructions from the Managing 
Editor. — A Visit to the Mainmotli Cave of Kentucky. — Nashville, 
Tennessee. — Alabama Unionists. — How the State was Precipitated 
into the Rebellion. — Reaching Memphis. — Abolitionists Mobbed and 
Hanged. — Brutalities of Slavery 17 

'^ CHAPTER II. 

In Memphis. — IIow the Secessionists Carried the Day. — Aims of the 
Leading Rebels. — On the Railroad. — A Northerner Warned. — An 
Amusing Dialogue. — Talk about Assassinating President Lincoln. — 
Arrival in New Orleans. — Hospitality from a Stranger. — An Ovation 
to General Twiggs. — Braxton Bragg. — The Rebels Anxious for "War. — 
A Glance at the Louisiana Convention , 31 

CHAPTER III. 

Association with Leading Secessionists. — Their Hatred of New Eng- 
land. — Admission to the Democratic Club. — Abuse of President Lin- 
coln. — Sinking Buildings, Cellars and "Walls Impossible. — Cemeteries 
above Ground. — Monument of a Pirate. — Canal Street. — The Great 
Erench Markets. — Dedication of a Secession Flag in the Catholic 
Church. — The Cotton Presses. — Visit to the Jackson Battle-ground. — • 
The Creoles. — Jackson's Head-Quarters. — A Fire in the Rear. — A Life 
Saved by a Cigar. — A Black Republican Flag. — Vice-President Hamlin 
a Mulatto. — Northerners leaving the South 43 

CHAPTER IV. 

How Letters were "Written and Transmitted. — A. System of Cipher. — 
A Philadelphian among the Rebels. — Probable fate of a Tribune Ooi*- 



8 Contents. 

respondent, if Discovered. — Southern Mannfactnres. — A Visit to a 
Southern Shoe Factory. — Where the Machinery and Workmen came 
from. — How Southern Shoes were Made. — Study of Southern Soci- 
ety. — Report of a Slave Auction. — Sale of a White Woman. — Girls 
on the Block. — Husbands and Wives Separated. — A most Revolting 
Spectacle. — The Delights of a Tropical Climate 57 

CHAPTER V. 

A Northerner among the Minute Men. — Louisiana Convention. — A Live- 
ly Discussion. — Boldness of the Union Members. — Another Exciting 
Discussion. — Secessionists Repudiate their Own DoctriE ds. — Despotic 
Rebel Theories.— -The Korthwest to Join the Rebels. — The Great 
Swamp. — A Trip through Louisiana. — The Tribune Correspondent 
Invited to a Seat in the Mississippi Convention VI 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Mississippi State-House. — View of the Rebel Hall. — Its General Air 
of Dilapidation. — A Free-and-Easy Convention. — Southern Orators. 
— The Anglo- African Delegate. — A Speech Worth Preserving. — Fa- 
miliar Conversation of Members. — New Orleans Again. — Reviewing 
Troops. — New Orleans Again. — Hatred of Southern Unionists. — 
Three Obnoxious Northerners. — The Attack on Sumter. — Rebel Bra- 
vado . . . . , 81 

CHAPTER VII. 

Abolition Tendencies of Kentuckians. — Fundamental Grievances of the 
Rebels. — Sudden Departure from New Orleans. — Mobile. — The War 
Spirit High. — An Awkward Encounter. — "Massa, Fort Sumter has 
gone Up."— Bells Ringing. — Cannon Booming.— Up the Alabama 
River. — A Dancing Little Darkey. — How to Escape Suspicion. — South- 
ern Characteristics and Provinciahsm. — Visit to the Confederate 
Capital. — At Montgomery, Alabama. — Copperas Breeches «s. Black 
Breeches. — A Correspondent under Arrest 91 

CHAPTER VIII. 

A Journey Through Georgia. — Excitement of the People. — Washington 
to be Captured. — Apprehensions about Arming the Negroes. — A Fa- 
tal Question.— Charleston.— Looking at Fort Sumter.— A Short Stay 
in the City.— North Carolina. —The Country on Fire.— Submitting to 
Rebel Scrutiny.— The North Heard From.— Richmond, Virginia.— 
The Frenzy of the People.— Up the Potomac— The Old Flag Once 
More. — An Hour with President Lincoln. — Washington in Panic. — 



Contents. 9 

A Eegiment which Came Out to Fight. — Baltimore under Eebel Eule. 
— Pennsylvania. — The North fully Aroused. — Uprising of the whole 
People — A Tribune Correspondent on Trial in Charleston. — He is 
Warned to Leave. — His Fortunate Escape 105 



11. —THE FIELD. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Sunday at Niagara Falls. — View froiu the Suspension Bridge. — The Pal- 
ace of the Frost King. — Chicago, a City Eising from the Earth. — Mys- 
teries of Western Currency. — A Horrible Spectacle in Arkansas.— 
Patriotism of the Northwest. — Missouri. — The Eebels bent on Eevo- 
lution. — Nathaniel Lyon. — Camp Jackson. — Sterling Price Joins the 
Eebels. — His Quarrel with Frank Blair. — His Personal Character. — • 
St. Louis in a Convulsion. — A Nashville Experience. — Bitterness of 
Old Neighbors. — Good Soldiers for Scaling Walls. — Wholesome Ad- 
vice to Missouri Slaveholders 125 



CHAPTER X. 

Cairo, Illinois. — A Visit from General McClellan. — A little Speech-mak- 
ing. — Penalty of Writing for The Tribune. — A Unionist Aided to Es- 
cape from Memphis by a Loyal Girl. — The Fascinations of Cairo. — 
The Death of Douglas. — A Clear-headed Contraband. — -A Eeview of 
the Troops. — "Not a Fighting Nigger, but a Eunning Nigger."— 
Capture of a Eebel Flag 141 

CHAPTER XI. 

Missouri Again. — The Eetributions of Time.— A Eailroad Eeminis- 
cence. — Jefferson City. — A Fugitive Governor. — " Black Eepublican- 
ism." — Belligerent Chaplain. — A Eebel Newspaper Converted by the 
Iowa Soldiers. — Two Camp Stories of the Marvelous 151 

CHAPTER XII. 

Chicago. — Corn, not Cotton, is King. — Curious Reminiscences of the 
City. — A Visit to the Grave of Douglas. — Patriotism of the North- 
western Germans. — Their Social Habits. — Cincinnati in the Early 
Days. — A City Founded by a Woman. — The Aspirations of the Cin- 
cinnatian. — Kentucky. — Treason and Loyalty in Louisville. — A Visit 
to George D. Prentice. — The first Union Troops of Kentucky. — 



10 Contents. 

Struggle in the Kentucky Legislature. — "What the Eebel Leaders 
Want. — Eousseau's Visit to Washington.— His Interview with Presi- 
dent Lincoln. — Timidity of the Kentucky Unionists. — Loyalty of 
Judge Lusk 157 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Western Virginia. — Campaigning in the Kanawha Valley. — A Blood- 
tliirsty Female Eebel. — A Soldier Proves to be a Woman in Disguise. — 
Extravagant Joy of the Negroes. — How the Soldiers Foraged. — The 
Falls of the Kanawha. — A Tragedy of Slavery. — St. Louis. — The Fu- 
ture of the City. — A disgusted Eebel Editor 173 

CHAPTER XIY. 

The Battle of Wilson Creek. — Daring Exploit of a Kansas Officer. — 
Death of Lyon. — His Courage and Patriotism. — Arrival of General 
Fremont. — Union Families Driven Out. — An Involuntary Sojourn in 
Eebel Camps. — A Startling Confederate Atrocity 181 

CHAPTER XV. 

Jeflferson City, Missouri. — Fremont's Army. — Organization of the Bohe- 
mian Brigade. — An Amusing Inquiry. — Diversions of the Corres- 
pondents. — A Polite Army Chaplain. — Sights in Jefferson City. — 
"Fights mit Sigel." — Fremont's Head-Quarters. — Appearance of the 
General. — Mrs. Fremont. — Sigel, Hunter, Pope, Asboth, McKins- 
try. — Sigel's Transportation Train. — A Countryman's Estimate of 
Troops 189 

CHAPTER XVI. 

A Kid-gloved Corps. — Charge of Fremont's Body-guard. — Major White. 
• — Turning the Tables. — Welcome from the Union Eesidents of Spring- 
field.— Freaks of the Kansas Brigade — A Visit to the Wilson-Creek 
Battle-Ground. — "Missing." — Graves Opened by Wolves. — Capture 
of a Female Spy. — Fremont's Farewell to His Army. — Dissatisfaction 
Among the Soldiers. — Spurious Missouri Unionists. — The Conduct of 
Secretary Cameron and Adjutant-General Thomas ,. . 199 

CHxiPTER XVII. 

Tlebel Guerrillas Outwitted. — Expedition to Fort Henry. — Scenes in the 
Captured Fort. — Commodore Foote in the Pulpit. — Capture of Fort 
Donelson. — Scenes in Columbus, Kentucky. — A Curious Anti-Cli- 
max. — Hospital Scenes 213 



Contents. 11 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Down the Mississippi. — Bombardment of Island Number Ten. — Sensa- 
tions under Eire. — Flanking the Island. — Daily Life on a Gunboat. — 
Triumph of Engineering Skill. — The Surrender 225 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The Battle of Shiloh. — "With the Sanitary Commission. — A Union Ora- 
tor in Rebel Hands. — Grant and Sherman in Battle. — Hair-breadth 
'Scapes. — General Sweeney. — Arrival of BuelPs Army. — The Final 
Struggle. — Losses of the Two Armies 235 



CHAPTER XX. 

Grant under a Cloud. — He Smokes and "Waits. — Military Jealousies. — 
The Union and Rebel Wounded 243 



CHAPTER XXI. 

An Interview with General Sherman. — His Complaints about the Press. 
: — Sherman's Personal Appearance. — Humors of the Telegraph. — 
Our Advance upon Corinth. — Weaknesses of Sundry Generals. — "Tea 
Thousand Prisoners Taken." — Halleck's Faux Pas at Corinth. — Out 
on the Front. — Among the Sharp-shooters. — Halleck and the War 
Correspondents 24T 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Bloodthirstiness of Rebel Women. — The Battle of Memphis. — Gallant 
Exploit of the Rams. — A Sailor on a Lark. — Appearance of the Cap- 
tured City. — The Jews in Memphis. — A Rebel Paper Supervised.— 
"A Dam Black-harted Ablichiness." — Challenge from a Southera 
Woman. — Valuable Currency. — A Rebel Trick. — One of Sherman's 
Jokes. — Fictitious Battle Reports.— Curtis's March through Arkan- 
sas. — The Siege of Cincinnati 259 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

With the Army of the Potomac. — On the War-Path. — A Duel in Ari- 
zona. — How Correspondents Avoided Expulsion. — Shameful Surren- 
der of Harper's Ferry. — General Hooker at Antietam. — "Stormed at 
with Shot and Shell."— A Night Among the Pickets.— The Battle- 
field 275 



12 Contents, 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Day after the Battle. — Among the Dead. — Lee Permitted to Escape. 
— The John Brown Engine-House. — President Lincoln Reviewing the 
Army. — Dodging Cannon Balls. — "An Intelligent Contraband." — 
Harper's Ferry. — Curiosities of the Signal Corps. — "View from Mary- 
land Eights 287 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Marching Southward, — Eebel Girl with Sharp Tongue — A Slight Mis- 
take. — Removal of General McClellan. — Farailiarity of the Pickets. — 
The Life of an Array Correspondent. — A Negro's Idea of Freedom. 
The Battle of Fredericksburg. — A Telegraphic Blunder. — The Bat- 
teries at Fredericksburg. — A Disappointed Virginian. — The Spirit of 
the Army under Defeat 299 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Eeminiscences of President Lincoln, — His Great Canvass with Douglas. — 
His Visit to Kansas. — His Manner of Public Speaking. — High Praise 
. from an Opponent. — A Deed without a Name. — Sherman's Quarrel 
with the Press. — An Army Correspondent Court-Martialed. — A 
Visit to President Lincoln. — Two of his "Little Stories." — His famil- 
iar Conversation. — Opinions about McClellan and Vicksburg. — Our 
best Contribution to History , 311 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Eeminiscences of General Sumner. — His Conduct in Kansas. — A Tliril- 
ling Scene in Battle. — How Sumner Fought. — Ordered Back by Mc- 
Clellan. — Love for his Old Comrades. — Traveling Through the North- 
west. — A Visit to Rosecrans's Army, — Rosecrans in a Great Battle. — ■ 
A Scene in Memphis 82T 



III.— THE DUIS'GEOK. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Running the Vicksburg Batteries. — Expedition Badly Fitted Out. — 
" Into the Jaws of Death." — A Moment of Suspense. — Disabled and 
Drifting Helplessly. — Bombarding, Scalding, Burning, Drowning. — 
Taking to a Hay Bale. — Overturned. — Rescued from the River. — The 
Killed, "Wounded, and Missing , , , , , 83T 



Contents. 13 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Standing by Our Colors. — Confinement in the Vicksburg Jail.— Sympa- 
thizing Sambo. — Paroled to Return Home.— Turning the Tables. — 
Visit from Many Rebels. — Interview with Jacob Thompson. — Arrival 
in Jackson, Mississippi. — Kindness of Southern Rebels. — A Project 
for Escape 347 

CnAPTER XXX. 

A "Word with a Union "Woman. — Grierson's Great Raid. — Stumping the 
State. — An Enraged Texan Officer. — AVaggery of a Captured Journal- 
ist. — The Alabama River. — Atlanta Editors Advocate Hanging the 
Prisoners. — Renegade Vermonters 357 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Arrival in Richmond. — Lodged in Libby Prison. — Sufferings from Ver- 
min. — Prisoners Denounced as Blasphemous. — Thieving of a Virginia 
Gentleman. — Brutality of Captain Turner. — Prisoners Murdered by 
the Guards. — Fourth of July Celebration. — The Horrors of Belle 
Isle 365 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

The Captains Ordered Below. — Two Selected for Execution. — The 
Gloomiest Night in Prison. — Glorious Revulsion of Feeling. — Excit- 
ing Discussion in Prison. — Stealing Money from the Captives. — Hor- 
rible Treatment of Northern Citizens. — Extravagant Rumors among 
the Prisoners 373 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Transferred to Castle Thunder. — Better than the Libby. — Determined 
Not to Die. — A Negro Cruelly Whipped. — The Execution of Spencer 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

A "Waggish .Journalist. — Proceedings of a Mock Court. — Escape by Kill- 
ing a Guard. — ^Escape by Playing Negro. — Escape by Forging a Re- 
lease, — Escaped Prisoner at Jeff Davis's Levee 387 

CHAPTER XXXV, 

Assistance from a Negro Boy. — The Prison Officers Enraged. — Visit 
fi-om a Friendly "Woman. — Shut up in a Cell. — Stealing from Flag-of- 



14 Contents. 

Truce Letters. — Parols Eepudiated by the Rebels. — Sentenced to tbe 
Salisbury Prison. — Abolitionists before the War 393 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

The Open Air and Pure "Water. — The Crushing Weight of Imprison- 
naent. — Bad News from Home. — The Great Libby Tunnel. — Escape 
of Colonel Streight. — Horrible Sufferings of Union Officers. — A Cool 
Method of Escape. — Captured through the Obstinacy of a Mule.— 
Concealing Money when Searched. — Attempts to Escape Frustrated. 
— Yankee Deserters Whipped and Hanged 401 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Great Influx of Prisoners. — Starving in tlie Midst of Pood. — Freezing in 
the Midst of Fuel. — Eebel Surgeons Generally Humane. — Terrible 
Scenes in the Hospitals. — The Rattling Dead- Cart. — Cruelty of our 
Government. — General Butler's Example of Retaliation 411 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Attempted Outbreak and Massacre. — Cold-blooded Murders Frequent. — 
Hostility to The Tribune Correspondents. — A Cruel Injustice. — Rebel 
Expectations of Peace. — The Prison Like the Tomb. — Something 
about Tunneling. — The Tunnelers Ingeniously BaflBed 419 



ly.— THE ESCAPE. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Fifteen Months of Fruitless Endeavor. — A Fearful Journey in Prospect. 
—A Friendly Confederate Officer.— Effects of Hunger and Cold.— 
Another Plan in Reserve.— Passing the Sentinel. — "Beg Pardon, 
Sir." — Encountering Rebel Acquaintances , . .' 427 

CHAPTER XL. 

*'Out of the Jaws of Death."— Concealed in Sight of the Prison.— Cer- 
tain to be Brought Back. — Commencing the Long Journey. — Too 
Weak for Traveling. — Severe March in the Rain 435 



Contents. 15 



CHAPTER XLI. 

A Cabin of Friendly Negroes. — Southerners Unacquainted witli Tea. — 
Walking Twelve Miles for Nothing. — Every Negro a Friend. — Touch- 
ing Fidelity of the Slaves. — Pursued by a Home-Guard. — Help in the 
Last Extremity. — Carried Fifteen Miles by Friends 441 



CHAPTER XLII. 

Curious Dilemma. — Food, Shelter, and Friends. — Loyalty of the 
Mountaineers. — A Levee in a Barn. — Visited by an Old Friend. — A 
Day of Alarms. — A Woman's Keady Wit. — Danger of Detection 
from Snoring. — Promises to Aid Suffering Comrades. — A Eepentant 
Rebel 449 



CHAPTER XLII I. 

Flanking a Eebel Camp. — Secreted among the Husks. — Wandering from 
the Eoad. — Crossing the Yadkin River, — Union Bushwhackers. — 
Union Soldiers " Lying Out." — An Energetic Invalid 461 



CHAPTER XLiy. 

Money Concealed in Clothing. — Peril of Union Citizens. — Fording 
Creeks at Midnight. — Climbing the Blue Ridge. — Crossing the New 
River at Midnight 469 



CHAPTER XLV. 

Over Mountains and Through Ravines. — Mistaken for Confederate 
Guards. — A Rebel Guerrilla Killed. — Meeting a Former Fellow-Pris- 
oner. — Alarm about Rebel Cavalry. — A Stanch old Unionist. — The 
Greatest Danger.— A Well Fortified Refuge 477 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

DanEUis, the Union Guide. — In Good Hands at Last. — Ellis's Bravery. — 
Lost ! A Perilous Blunder. — A most Fortunate Encounter. — Rejoin- 
ing Dan and His Party. — A Terrible March 487 

CHAPTER XLYII. 

Fording Creeks in the Darkness. — Prospect of a Dreary Night. — Sleep- 
ing among the Husks. — Turning Back in Discouragement. — An 



16 Contents. 

Alarm at Midniglit. — A Young Lady for a Guide. — The Nameless 
Heroine 495 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 

Among the Delectable Mountains. — Separation from Friends. — Union 
Women Scrutinizing the Yankee. — "Slide Down off that Horse." — 
Friendly "Words, but Hostile Eyes. — Hospitalities of a Loyal Patri- 
arch.—" Out of the Mouth of HeU." 503 




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THE FIELD, THE DOTGEON, AND, THE ESCAPE. 



I. 

THE SECRET SERYIOE. 



CHAPTER I. 



I will go on the slightest errand now to the antipodes that you can desire to send 
me on. — Mctoh Ado about Nothing. 

Early in 1861, I felt a strong desire to look at the 
Secession movement for myself; to learn, by personal 
observation, wliether it sprang from the people or not ; 
what the Revolutionists wanted, what they hoped, and 
what they feared. 

But the southern climate, never propitious to the 
longevity of Abolitionists, was now unfavorable to the 
health of every northerner, no matter liow strong his 
political constitution. I felt the danger of being recog- 
nized ; for several years of roving journalism, and a 
good deal of political speaking on the frontier, had 
made my face familiar to persons whom I did not 
remember at all, and given me that large and motley 
acquaintance which every half-public life necessitates. 

Moreover, I had passed through the Kansas struggle ; 
and many former shining lights of Border Ruffianism 
were now, with perfect fitness, lurid torches in the early 
bonfires of Secession. I did not care to meet their eyes, 
for I could not remember a single man of them all who 

2 



18 The Managing Editor. [isei. 

would Ibe likely to love me, either wisely or too well. 
But the newspaper instinct was strong within me, and 
the journalist who deliberates is lost. My hesitancy 
resulted in writing for a roving commission to represent 
The Tribune in the Southwest. 

A few days after, I found the Managing Editor in 
his office, going through the great pile of letters the 
morning mail had brought him, with the wonderful 
rapidity wliich quick intuition, long experience, and 
natural fitness for that most delicate and onerous posi- 
tion alone can give. For the modern newspaper is a 
sort of intellectual iron-clad, upon which, while the 
Editorial Captain makes out the reports to his chief, 
the public, and entertains the guests in his elegant 
cabin, the leading column, and receives the credit for 
every broadside of type and every paper bullet of the 
brain poured into the enemy, — back out of sight is an 
Executive Officer, with little popular fame, who keeps 
the ship all right from hold to maintop, looks to every 
detail with sleepless vigilance, and whose life is a 
daily miracle of hard work. 

The Manager went through his mail, I think, at the 
rate of one letter per minute. He made final disposition 
of each when it came into his hand ; acting upon the 
great truth, that if he laid one aside for futui'e consid- 
eration, there would soon be a series of strata upon 
his groaning desk, which no mental geologist could 
fathom or classify. Some were ruthlessly thrown into 
the waste-basket. Others, with a lightning pencil- 
stroke, to indicate the type and style of printing, were 
placed on the pile for the composing-room. A few great 
packages of manuscript were re-enclosed in envelopes 
for the mail, with a three-line note, which, while 1 
did not read, I knew must run like this : — 



1861.] PkELIMINARY INSTRUCTIONS. 19 

"My Dear Sir — Tour article has unquestionable merit; but by the 
imperative pressure of important news upon our columns, we are very 
reluctantly compelled," etc. 

There was that quick, educated instinct, which reads 
the whole from a very small part, taking in a line here and 
a key- word there. Two or three glances appeared to 
decide the fate of each ; yet the reader was not wholly 
absorbed, for all the while he kept up a running con- 
versation : 

" I received your letter. Are you going to ISTew Or- 
leans?" 

" Ifot unless you send me." 

"I suppose you know it is rather precarious busi- 
ness?" 

"O, yes." 

"Two of our correspondents have come home within 
the last week, after narrow escapes. We have six still 
in the South ; and it would not surprise me, this very 
hour, to receive a telegram annourfcing the imprison- 
ment or death of any one of them." 

"I have thought about all that, and decided." 

"Then we shall be very glad to have you go." 

" When may I start ?" 

"To-day, if you like." 

" What field shall I occupy ?" 

"As large a one as you please. Go and remain just 
where you think best." 

' ' How long shall I stay V ' 

"While the excitement lasts, if possible. Do you 
know how long you will stay ? You will be back here 
solne fine morning in just about two weeks." 

"Wait and see." 

Pondering upon the line of conduct best for the 
journey, I remembered the injunction of the immortal 



20 A Rede Through Kentucky. [isei. 

Pickwick: "It is always Ibest on these occasions to do 
what the mob do!" "But," suggested Mr. Snodgrass, 
" suppose there are two mohs ?" '■-'■ 8Jiout witJi the larg- 
est^'''' replied Mr. Pickwick. Volumes could not say- 
more. Upon this plan I determined to act — concealing 
my occupation, political views, and place of residence. 
It is not pleasant to wear a padlock upon one' s tongue, 
for weeks, nor to adopt a course of systematic duplicity ; 
"but personal convenience and safety rendered it an in- 
exorable necessity. 

On Tuesday, February 26th, I left Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, by the NashviUe train. Public affairs were 
the only topic of conversation among the passengers. 
They were about equally divided into enthusiastic 
Secessionists, urging in favor of the new movement 
that negroes already commanded higher prices than 
ever before; and quasi Loyalists, reiterating, "We 
only want Kentucky to remain in the Union as long 
as she can do so honorably." Not a single man de- 
clared himself unqualifiedly for the Government. 

A ride of five hours among blue, dreamy hills, 
feathered with timber ; dense forests, with their droop- 
ing foliage and log dwellings, in the doors of which 
women and little girls were complacently smoking 
their pipes; great, hospitable farm-houses, in the midst 
of superb natural parks ; tobacco plantations, upon 
which negroes of both sexes — the women in cowhide 
brogans, and faded frocks, with gaudy kerchiefs 
wrapped like turbans about their heads — were hoe- 
ing, and following the plow, brought us to Cave City. 

I left the train for a stage-ride of ten miles to the 
Mammoth Cave Hotel. In the midst of a smooth lawn? 
shaded by stately oaks and slender pines, it looms 
up huge and white, with a long, low, one- story off- 



1861.] The Curiosities of White's Cave. 21 

slioot fronted Iby a deep portico, and known as "tlie 
Cottages." 

Several evening hours were spent pleasantly in 
White's Cave, where the formations, at first dull and 
leaden, turn to spotless white after one grows accus- 
tomed to the dim light of the torches. There are little 
lakes so utterly transparent that your eye fails to 
detect the presence of water ; stone drapery, hanging 
in graceful folds, and forming an exquisitely beautiful 
chamber ; petrified fountains, where the water still 
trickles down and hardens into stone ; a honey-combed 
roof, which is a very perfect counterfeit of art; long 
rows of stalactites, symmetrically ribbed and fluted, 
which stretch off in a pleasing colonnade, and other 
rare specimens of N'ature's handiwork in her fantastic 
moods. Many of them are vast in dimension, though 
the geologists declare that it requires tliirty years to 
deposit a formation no thicker than a wafer! "Well 
says the German proverb "Grod is patient because he 
is eternal." 

With another visitor I passed the next day in the 
Mammoth Cave. "Mat," our sable cicerone, had been 
acting in the capacity of guide for twenty- five years, 
and it was estimated that he had walked more than fifty 
thousand miles under ground. The story is not so im- 
probable when one remembers that the passages of the 
great cavern are, in the aggregate, upwards of one hun- 
dred and fifty miles in length, and that it has two hun- 
dred and twenty-six known chambers. The outfit con- 
sisted of two lamps for himself and one for each of us. 
Cans of oil are kept at several interior points ; for 
it is of the last importance that visitors to this laby- 
rinth of darkness should keep their lamps trimmed and 
burning. 



22 The Mammoth Cave. — Lung Complaints, [isei. 

The thermometer within stands constantly at fifty- 
nine Fahrenheit; and the cave ""breathes just once a 
year." Through the winter it takes one long inspiration, 
and in summer the air rushes steadily outward. Its 
vast chamhers are the lungs of the universe. 

In 1845, a number of wood and stone cottages were 
erected in the cavern, and inhabited Iby consumptive 
patients, who believed that the dry atmosphere and 
equable temperature would prove beneficial. After 
three or four months their faces were bloodless ; the 
pupils of their sunken eyes dilated until the iris became 
invisible and the organs appeared black, no matter 
what their original color. Three patients died in the 
cave ; the others expired soon after leaving it. 

Mat gave a vivid description of these invalids flitting 
about like ghosts — their hollow coughs echoing and re- 
echoing through the cavernous chambers. It must have 
looked horrible — as if the tomb had oped its ponderous 
and marble jaws, that its victims might wander about in 
this subterranean Purgatory. A cemetery would seem 
cheerful in comparison with such a living entombment. 
Volunteer medical advice, like a motion to adjourn, is 
always in order. My own panacea for lung-complaints 
would be exactly the opposite. Mount a horse or take 
a carriage, and ride, by easy stages at first, across the 
great plains to the Rocky Mountains or California, 
eating and sleeping in the open air. Nature is very 
kind, if you will trust her fully ; and in the atmosphere, 
which is so dry and pure that fresh meat, cut in strips 
and hung up, will cure without salting or smoking, and 
may be carried all over the world, her healing power 
seems almost boundless. 

The walls and roof of the cave were darkened and 
often hidden by myriads of screeching bats, at this 



1861.] Methodist Church. — Fat Man's Misery. 23 

season of the year all hanging torpid loj the claws, with 
heads downward, and unable to fly away, even when 
subjected to the cruel experiment of being touched by 
the torches. 

The Methodist Church is a semi-circular chamber, in 
which a ledge forms the natural pulpit ; and logs, 
brought in when religious service was first performed, 
fifty years ago, in perfect preservation, yet serve for 
seats. Methodist itinerants and other clergymen still 
preach at long intervals. Worship, conducted by the 
" dim religious light" of tapers, and accompanied by the 
effect which music always produces in subterranean 
halls, must be peculiarly impressive. It suggests those 
early days in the Christian Church, when the hunted 
followers of Jesus met at midnight in mountain caverns, 
to blend in song their reverent voices ; to hear anew the 
strange, sweet story of his teachings, his death, and his 
all-embracing love. 

Upon one of the walls beyond, a figure of gypsum, in 
bass-relief, is called the American Eagle. The venerable 
bird, in consonance with the evil times upon which he 
had fallen, was in a sadly ragged and dilapidated con- 
dition. One leg and other portions of his body had 
seceded, leaving him in seeming doubt as to his own 
identity ; but the beak was still perfect, as if lie could 
send forth upon occasion his ancient notes of self-gratu- 
lation. 

Minerva's Dome has fluted walls, and a concave 
roof, beautifully honey-combed ; but no statue of its 
mistress. The oft-invoked goddess, wearied by the 
merciless orators who are always compelling her to leap 
anew from the brain of Jove, has doubtless, in some 
hidden nook, found seclusion and repose. 

We toiled along the narrow, tortuous passage, chis- 



24 A Ride Down the Lethe. [issi. 

eled througli the rock 'by some ancient stream of water, 
and appropriately named the Fat Man' s Misery ; wiped 
away the perspiration in the ample passage beyond, 
known as the Great Relief; glanced inside the Bacon 
Chamber, where the little masses of lime-rock pendent 
from the roof do look marvelously like esculent hams ; 
peeped down into the cylindrical Bottomless Pit, which 
the reader shall be told, confidentially, 7ias a bottom just 
one hundred and sixty feet below the surface ; laughed 
at the roof-figures of the Giant, his Wife, and Child, 
which resemble a caricature from Punch; admired the 
delicate, exquisite flowers of white, fibrous gypsum, 
along the walls of Pensacola Avenue ; stood beside the 
Dead Sea, a dark, gloomy body of water ; crossed the 
Styx by the natural bridge which spans it, and halted 
upon the shore of Lethe. 

Then, embarking in a little flat-boat, we slowly glided 
along the river of Oblivion. It was a strange, weird 
spectacle. The flickering torches dimly revealed the 
dark inclosing walls, which rise abruptly a hundred 
feet to the black roof. Our sable guide looked, in the 
ghastly light, like a recent importation from Pluto's 
domain ; and stood in the bows, steering the little craft, 
which moved slowly down the winding, sluggish river. 
The deep silence was only broken by drops of water, 
which fell from the roof, strildng the stream like the tick 
of a clock, and the sharp yip of the paddle, as it was 
thrust into the wave to guide us. When my com- 
panion evoked from his flute strains of slow music, 
which resounded in hollow echoes through the long 
vault, it grew so . demoniac, that I almost expected the 
walls to open and reveal a party of fiends, dancing to 
infernal music around a lurid fire. I never saw any 
stage effect or work of art that could compare with it 



1861.] The Star Chamber. — Magnificent Distances. 25 

If one would enjoy the most vivid sensations of the 
grand and gloomy, let him float down Lethe to the 
sound of a dirge. 

We first saw the Star ChamlDer with the lights with- 
drawn. It revealed to us the meaning of ' ' darkness 
visible." We seemed io feel the dense blackness against 
our eye-balls. An object within half an inch of them 
was not in the faintest degree perceptible. If one were 
left alone here, reason could not long sustain itself. 
Even a few hours, in the absence of light, would proba- 
bly shake it. In numberless little spots, the dark gyp- 
sum has scaled off", laying bare minute sections of the 
white limestone roof, resembling stars. When the cham- 
ber was lighted the illusion became perfect. We seemed 
in a deep, rock- walled pit, gazing up at the starry firma- 
ment. The torch, slowly moved to throw a shadow 
along the roof, produced the effect of a cloud sailing 
over the sky ; but the scene required no such aid to ren- 
der it one of marvelous beauty. The Star Chamber is 
the most striking picture in all this great gallery of 
Nature. 

My companion had spent his whole life within a few 
miles of the cave, but now vieited it for the first time. 
Thus it is always ; objects which pilgrims come haK 
across the world to see, we regard with indifference at 
our own doors. Persons have passed all their days in 
sight of Mount Washington, and yet never looked upon 
the grand panorama from its brow. Men have lived 
from childhood almost within sound of the roar of 
Niagara, without ever gazing on the vast fountain, 
where- mother Earth, like Rachel, weeps for her children, 
and will not be comforted- We appreciate no enjoy- 
ment justly, until we see it through the charmed medium 
of magnificent distances. 



26 Political Feeling in Kentucky. [Ibgl 

Throughout Kentucky the pending trouhles were 
uppermost in every heart and on every tongue. One 
gentleman, in conversation, thus epitomized the feeling 
of the State : — 

"We have more wrongs to complain of than any 
other slave community, for Kentucky loses more negroes 
than all the cotton States combined. But Secession is no 
remedy. It would be jumping out of the frying-pan into 
the fire." 

Another, whose head was silvered with age, said to 
me: — 

" When I was a boy here in this county, some of our 
neighbors started for IS'ew Orleans on a flat-boat. As we 
bade them good-by, we never expected to see them 
again; we thought they were going out of the world. 
But, after several months, they returned, having come 
on foot all the way, through the Indian country, pack- 
ing"^ their blankets and provisions. JSTow we come from 
New Orleans in five days. I thank God to have lived in 
this age — the age of the Railroad, the Telegraph, and the 
Printing Press. Ours was the greatest nation and the 
greatest era in history. But that is all past now. The 
Government is broken to pieces ; the slave States can not 
obtain their rights ; and those which have seceded wiU 
never come back." 

An old farmer " reckoned," as I traveled a good deal, 
that I might know better than he whether there was any 
hope of a peaceable settlement. If the North, as he 
believed, was willing to be just, an overwhelming ma- 
jority of Kentuckians would stand by the Union. " It is 
a great pity," he said, very earnestly, in a broken voice, 
*' that we Americans could not live harmoniously, like 

* Vernacular for carrying a load upon the back of a man or animal. 



1861.] Cotton-Fields. — An Indignant Alabamian. 27 

Ibretliren, instead of always quarreling about a few 
niggers." 

My recollections of Nashville, Tennessee, include only 
an unpalatable breakfast in one of its abominable hotels ; 
a glimpse at some of its pleasant shaded streets and 
marble capitol, which, with the exception of that in 
Columbus, Ohio, is considered the finest State-house on 
the continent. 

Continuing southward, I found the country already 
"appareled in the sweet livery of spring." The elm and 
gum trees wore their leafy glory ; the grass and wheat 
carpeted the ground with swelling verdure, and field and 
forest glowed with the glossy green of the holly. The 
railway led through large cotton-fields, where many 
negroes, of both sexes, were plowing and hoeing, while 
overseers sat upon the high, zig-zag fences, armed with 
rifles or shot-guns. On the withered stalks snowy tufts 
of cotton were still protruding from the dull brown bolls 
— ^portions of the last year' s crop, which had never been 
picked, and were disappearing under the plow. 

A native Kentuckian, now a young merchant in Ala- 
bama, was one of my fellow-passengers. He pronounced 
the people aristocratic. They looked down upon every 
man who worked for his living — ^indeed, upon every one 
who did not own negroes. The ladies were pretty, and 
often accomplished, but, he mildly added, he would like 
them better if they did not "dip." He insistoji that 
Alabama had been precipitated into the revolution. 

"We were swindled out of our rights. In my own 
town, Jere Clemens — an ex-United States senator, and 
one of the ablest men in the State — ^was elected to the 
convention on the strongest public pledges of UnionisuL 
When the convention met, he went completely over to 
the enemy. The leaders — a few heavy slaveholders, 



28 ^^ Our Correspondent" as a New Mexican, [isei. 

aided Iby political demagogues — dared not sulbmit the 
Secession ordinance to a popular vote ; they knew the 
people would defeat them. They are determined on war ; 
they will exasperate the ignorant masses to the last degree 
Ibefore they allow them to vote on any test question. I 
trust the Grovernment will put them down "by force of 
arms, no matter what the cost !" 

The same evening, crossing the Alal^ama line, I was 
in the "Confederate States of America." At the little 
town of Athens, the Stars and Stripes were still floating ; 
as the train left, I cast a longing look at the old flag, 
wondering when I should see it again. 

The next person who took a seat beside me went 
through the formula of questions, usual between 
strangers in the South and the Far West, asking my 
name, residence, business, and destination. He was 
informed, in reply, that I lived in the Territory of 'New 
Mexico, and was now traveling leisurely to New 
Orleans, designing to visit Vera Cruz and the City oi 
Mexico before returning home. This hypothesis, to 
which I afterward adhered, was rendered plausible by 
my knowledge of New Mexico, and gave me the advan- 
tage of not being deemed a partisan. Secessionists 
and Unionists alike, regarding me as a stranger with no 
particular sympathies, conversed freely. Aaron Burr 
asserts that "a lie well stuck to is good as the trutii -J' 
in my own case, it was decidedly better than the truth. 

My querist was a cattle-drover, who spent most of . 
Ms time in traveling through Alabama, Mississippi and 
Louisiana. He declared emphatically that the people of 
those States had been placed in a false position ; that 
their hearts were loyal to the Union, in spite of all the 
arts which had been used to deceive and exasperate them. 

At Memphis was an old friend, whom I had not met 



1861.] A Hot Climate for Abolitionists. 29 

for many years, and wlio was now commercial editor of 
the leading Secession journal. I knew Mm to Ibe per- 
fectly trustworthy, and, at heart, a bitter opponent of 
Slavery. On the morning of my arrival, he called upon 
me at the Grayoso House. After his first cordial greet- 
ing, he asked, abruptly : 

" What are you doing down here ?" 

" Corresponding for The Tribune.'''' 

"How far are you going ?" 

" Through all the Gulf States, if possible." 

"My friend," said he, in his deep bass tones, "do 
you know that you are on very perilous business f 

' ' Possibly ; but I shall be extremely prudent when 
I get into a hot climate." 

"I do not know" (with a shrug of the shoulders) 
"what you call a hot climate. Last week, two north- 
erners, who had been mobbed as Abolitionists, passed 
through here, with their heads shaved, going home, in 
charge of the Adams Express. A few days before, a 
man was hung on that cottonwood tree which you see 
just across the river, upon the charge of tampering with 
slaves. Another person has just been driven out of the 
city, on suspicion of writing a letter for TTie Tribune. 
If the people in this house, and out on the street in 
front, knew you to be one of its correspondents, they 
would not leave you many minutes for saying your 
prayers." 

After a long, minute conversation, in which my 
friend learned my plans and gave me some valuable 
hints, he remarked : 

" My first impulse was to go down on my knees, and 
beg you, for Grod's sake, to turn back; but I rather 
think you may go on with comparative safety. You are 
the first man to whom I have opened my heart for years. 



30 Aims and Animus of Secessionists. [isei. 

I wish some of my old northern friends, who think 
Slavery a good thing, could witness the scenes in the 
slave auctions, which have so often made my "blood 
rim cold. I knew two runaway negroes absolutely 
starve themselves to death in their hiding-places in thip 
city, rather than make themselves known, and he sent 
back to their masters. " I disliked Slavery before ; now 
I hate it, down to the very bottom of my heart." His 
compressed lips and clinched fingers, driving their nails 
into his palms, attested the depth of his feeling. 



1861.] Secession Aims and Grievances. 31 



CHAPTER II. 

Thus far into the bowels of the land 

Have we marched on without impediment — Bichabo IIL 

While I remained in Mempliis, my friend, who was 
"brought into familiar contact with leading Secessionists, 
gave me much valuaWe information. He insisted that 
they were in the minority, hut carried the day because 
they were noisy and aggressive, overawing the Loyalists, 
who staid quietly at home. Before the recent city 
election, every one believed the Secessionists in a large 
majority; hut, when a Union meeting was called, the 
people turned out surprisingly, and, as they saw the 
old flag, gave cheer after cheer, "with tears in their 
voices." Many, intimidated, staid away from the polls. 
The newspapers of the city, with a single exception, 
were disloyal, hut the Union ticket was elected by a 
majority of more than three hundred. 

" Tell me exactly what the 'wrongs' and 'grievances' 
are, of which I hear so much on every side." 

"It is difficult to answer. The masses have been 
stirred into a vague, bitter, ' soreheaded' feeling that the 
South is wronged ; but the leaders seldom descend to 
particulars. When they do, it is very ludicrous. They 
urge the marvelous growth of the N^orth ; the abrogation 
of the Missouri Compromise (done by southern votes !), 
and that Freedom has always distanced Slavery in the 
territories. Secession is no new or spontaneous uprising ; 
every one of its leaders here has talked of it and planned 
it for years. Individual ambition, and wild dreams of a 



32 Spring-Time in Memphis. isei.j 

great southern empire, wMcli sliall include Mexico, Cen- 
tral America, and Cu1ba, seem to be their leading incen- 
tives. But there is another, stronger still. You can 
hardly imagine how bitterly they hate the Democratic 
Idea — ^how they loathe the thought that the vote of any 
laboring man, with a rusty coat and soiled hands, may 
neutralize that of a wealthy, educated, slave-owning 
gentleman." 

" Wonder why they gave it such a name of old renown, 
This dreary, dingy, muddy, melancholy town." 

Thus Charles Mackay describes Memphis ; but it im- 
pressed me as the pleasantest city of the South. Though 
its population was only thirty thousand, it had the air 
and promise of a great metropolis. The long steam- 
boat landing was so completely covered with cotton that 
drays and carriages could hardly thread the few tortuous 
passages leading down to the water's edge. Bales of the 
same great staple were piled up to the ceiling in the 
roomy stores of the cotton factors; the hotels were 
crowded, and spacious and elegant blocks were being 
erected. 

A few days earlier, in Cleveland, I had seen the 
ground covered with snow ; but here I was in the midst 
of early summer. During the first week of March, the 
heat was so oppressive that umbrellas and fans were in 
general use upon the streets. The broad, shining leaves 
of the magnolia, and the delicate foliage of the weeping 
willow, were nodding adieu to winter; the air was 
sweet with cherry blossoms ; with 

■ ''Daffodils 



THat come before the swallow dares, and take 
The winds of March with beauty ; violets dim, 
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, 
Or Oytherea's breath." 



1861.] Captain McIntire, late of the Army. 33 

On tlie evening of March 3d I left Memphis. A 
thin-visaged, sandy-haired, angular gentleman in specta- 
cles, who occupied a car-seat near me, though of northern 
"birth, had resided in the Grulf States for several years, as 
agent for an Albany manufactory of cotton-gins and 
agricultural implements. A broad-shouldered, roughly 
dressed, sun-browned young man, whose chin was hid- 
den by a small forest of beard, accepted the proffer of a 
cigar, took a seat beside us, and introduced himself as 
Captain Mclntire, of the United States Army, who had 
just resigned his commission, on account of the pending 
troubles, and was returning from the Texian frontier to 
his plantation in Mississippi. He was the first bitter 
Secessionist I had met, and I listened with attent ear to 
his complaints of northern aggression. 

The Albanian was an advocate of Slavery and declared 
that, in the event of separation, his lot was with the 
South, for better or for worse ; but he mildly urged that 
the Secession movement was hasty and ill advised ; hoped 
the difiiculty might be settled by compromise, and de- 
clared that, traveling through all the cotton States since 
Mr. Lincoln's election, he had found, everywhere out- 
side the great cities, a strong love for the Union and a 
universal hope that the Republic might continue indi- 
visible. He was very "conservative;" had always 
voted the Democratic ticket ; was confident the north- 
ern people would not willingly wrong their southern 
brethren ; and insisted that not more than twenty or 
thirty thousand persons in the State of Wew-York were, 
in any just sense. Abolitionists. 

Captain Mclntire silently heard Mm through, and 
then remarked : 

" You seem to be a gentleman ; you may be sincere in 
your oj)inions ; but it won't do for you to express such 

3 



34 An Amusing Colloquy. [isei. 

sentiments in tlie State of Mississippi. They will involve 
you in trouble and in danger !" 

The New-Yorker was swift to explain that he was 
very "sound," favoring no compromise which would 
not give the slaveholders all they asked. Meanwhile, a 
taciturn but edified listener, I pondered upon the Ger- 
man proverb, that "speech is silver, while silence is 
golden." Something gave me a dim suspicion that our 
violent fire-eater was not of southern birth ; and, after be- 
ing plied industriously with indirect questions, he was 
reluctantly forced to acknowledge himself a native of the 
State of I^ew Jersey. Soon after, at a little station, Cap- 
tain Mclntire, late of the Army of the United States, bade 
us adieu. 

At Grand Junction, after I had assumed a recumbent 
position in the sleeping-car, two young women in a 
neighboring seat fell into conversation with a gentleman 
near them, when a droll colloquy ensued. Learning that 
he was a 'New Orleans merchant, one of them asked : — 

"Do you know Mr. Powers, of New Orleans ?" 

"Powers — Powers," said the merchant ; "what does 
he do 2" 

" Gambles," was the cool response. 

" Bless me, no ! What do you know about a 
gambler ?" 

"He is my husband," replied the woman, with in- 
genuous promptness. 

"Your husband a gambler!" ejaculated the gentle- 
man, with horror in every tone. 

"Yes, sir," reiterated the undaunted female; "and 
gamblers are the best men in the world." 

" I didn't know they ever married. I should like to 
see a gambler's wife." 



1861.] Feeling Toward President Lincoln. 35 

^' Well, sir, take a mighty good look, and you can see 
one now." 

The merchant opened the curtains into their compart- 
ment, and scrutinized the speaker — a young, rosy, and 
rather comely woman, with blue eyes and brown hair, 
quietly and tastefully dressed. 

'^ I should like to know your husband, madam." 

"Well, sir ; if you've got plenty of money, he will 
be glad to make your acquaintance." 

" Does he ever go home ?" 

"Lord bless you, yes! He always comes home at 
one o'clock in the morning, after he gets through dealing 
faro. He has not missed a single night since we were 
married — going on five years. We own a farm in this 
vicinity, and if business continues good with him next 
year we shall retire to it, and never live in the city 
again." 

All the following day I journeyed through deep 
forests of heavy drooping foliage, with pendent tufts 
of gray Spanish moss. The beautiful Cherokee rose 
everywhere trailed its long arms of vivid green ; all 
the woods were decked with the yellow flowers of the 
sassafras and the white blossoms of the dogwood and the 
wild plum. Our road stretched out in long perspective 
through great Louisiana everglades, where the grass was 
four feet in liight and the water ten or twelve inches deep. 

It was the day of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. One 
of our passengers remarked : 

" I hope to God he will be killed before he has time 
to take the oath !" 

Another said : 

" I have wagered a new hat that neither he nor Ham- 
lin will ever live to be inaugurated." 

An old Mississippian, a working man, though the owner 



S6 What a Mississippi Slaveholder Thought, [isei 

of a dozen slaves, assured me earnestly that the people 
did not desire war ; iDut the North had cheated them in 
every compromise, and they were bound to regain their 
rights, even if they had to fight for them. 

"We of the South," said he, "are the most inde- 
pendent people in the universe. We raise every thing 
we need ; hut the world can not do without cotton. If 
we have war, it will cause terrible suffering in the 
North. I pity the ignorant people of the manufacturing 
districts there, who have been deluded by the poli- 
ticians ; for they will be forced to endure many hard- 
ships, and perhaps starvation. After Southern trade is 
withdrawn, manufactures stopped, operatives starving, 
grass growing in the streets of New York, and crowds 
marching up Broadway crying 'Bread or Blood!' 
northern fanatics will see, too late, the results of their 
folly." 

This was the uniform talk of Secessionists. That 
Cotton was not merely King, but absolute despot ; that 
they could coerce the North by refusing to buy goods, 
and coerce the whole world by refusing to sell cotton, 
was their profound belief. This was always a favorite 
southern theory. Bancroft relates that as early as 1661, 
the colony of Virginia, suffering under commercial 
oppression, urged North Carolina and Maryland to join 
her for a year in refusing to raise tobacco, that they 
might compel Great Britain to grant certain desired 
privileges. Now the Eebels had no suspicion "vdiat- 
ever that there was reciprocity in trade ; that they 
needed to sell their great staple just as much as the 
world needed to buy it ; that the South bought goods 
in New York simply because it was the cheapest and 
best market ; that, were all the cotton-producing States 
instantly sunk in the ocean, in less than five years the 



1861.] Wisconsin Freemen vs. Southern Slaves. 37 

world wonld obtain their staple, or some adequate 
sulbstitute, from other sources, and forget they ever 
existed. 

"I spent six weeks last summer," said another 
planter, "in Wisconsin. It is a hot-bed of Abolition- 
ism. The working- classes are astonishingly ignorant. 
They are honest and industrious, but they are not so 
intelligent as the nig-roes of the South. They sup- 
pose, if war comes, we shall have trouble with our 
slaves. That is utterly absurd. All my nig-roes would 
fight for me." 

A Mississippian, whom his companions addressed as 
"Judge," denounced the Secession movement as a 
dream of noisy demagogues: 

" Their whole policy has been one of precipitation. 
They declared : ' Let us rush the State out of the Union 
while Buchanan is President, and there will be no war.' 
From the outset, they have acted in defiance of the sober 
will of the masses ; they have not dared to submit one 
of their acts to a popular vote !" 

Another passenger, who concurred in these views, 
and intimated that he was a Union man, still imputed 
the troubles mainly to agitation of the Slavery ques- 
tion. 

"The northern people," said he, "have been grossly 
deceived by their politicians, newspapers, and books 
like 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' whose very first chapter 
describes a slave imprisoned and nearly starved to death 
in a cellar in New Orleans, when there is not a single 
cellar in the whole city !" 

Midnight found us at the St. Charles Hotel, a five-story 
edifice, with granite basement and walls of stucco— that 
be-all and end-all of !N'ew Orleans architecture. The 
house has an imposing Corinthian portico, and in the 



38 Hospitality of a Stranger. [isgl 

hot season its stone floors and tall columns are cool and 
inviting to the eye. 

"You can not fail to like New Orleans," said a friend, 
"before I left the North. "Its people are much more 
genial and cordial to strangers than ours." I took no 
letters of introduction, for introduction was just the 
thing I did not want. But on the cars, "before reaching 
the city, I met a gentleman with whom I had a little con- 
versation, and exchanged the ordinary civilities of trav- 
eling. When we parted, he handed me his card, say- 
ing: 

" You are a stranger in New Orleans, and may desire 
some information or assistance. Call and see me, and 
command me, if I can be of service to you." 

He proved to he the senior member of one of the 
heaviest wholesale houses in the city. Accepting the 
invitation, I found him in his counting-room, deeply en- 
grossed in business ; but he received me with great kind- 
ness, and gave me information about the leading features 
of the city which I wished to see. As I left, he prom- 
ised to call on me, adding: "Come in often. By the 
way, to-morrow is Sunday ; why can't you go home and 
take a quiet family dinner with me ?" 

I was curious to learn the social position of one who 
would invite a stranger, totally without indorsement, 
into his home-circle. The next day he called, and we 
took a two- story car of the Baronne street railway. It 
leads through the Fourth or Lafayette District — more 
like a garden than a city— containing the most delightful 
metropolitan residences in America. Far back from the 
street, they are deeply imbosomed in dense shrubbery 
and flowers. The tropical profusion of the foliage retains 
dampness and is unwholesome, but very delicious to the 
senses. 



1861.] An Agreeable Family Circle. 39 

The houses are low — this latitude is unfavorahle to 
climbing — and constructed of stucco, cooler than wood, 
and less damp than stone. They abound in verandas, 
balconies, and galleries, which give to New Orleans a 
peculiarly mellow and elastic -look, much more alluring 
than the cold, naked architecture of northern cities. 

My neAv friend lived in this district, as befits a mer- 
chant prince. His spacious grounds were rich in haw- 
thorns, magnolias, arbor- vitses, orange, olive, and fig 
trees, and sweet with the breath of multitudinous 
flowers. Though it was only the tenth of March, 
myriads of pinks and trailing roses were in full bloom ; 
Japan plums hung ripe, while brilliant oranges of 
the previous year still glowed upon the trees. His 
ample residence, with its choice works of art, was 
quietly, unostentatiously elegant. There was no mis- 
taking it for one of those gilt and gaudy palaces which 
seem to say: "Look at the state in which Croesus, my 
master, lives. Lo, the pictures and statues, the Brussels 
and rosewood which his money has bought ! Behold 
him clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously 
every day !" 

Three other guests were present, including a young 
officer of the Louisiana troops stationed at Fort Pickens, 
and a lady whose husband and brother held each a high 
commission in the Rebel forces of Texas. All assumed 
to be Secessionists — as did nearly every person I met in 
New Orleans upon first acquaintance — but displayed 
none of the usual rancor and violence. In that well- 
poised, agreeable circle the evening passed quickly, and 
at parting, the host begged me to frequent his house. 
This was not distinctively southern hospitality, for he was 
born and bred at the Noith. But in our eastern cities, 
from a business man in his social position, it would ap- 



40 Tribune Letters. — General Twiggs. [isei. 

pear a little surprising. Had lie been a Philadelphian 
or Bostonian, would not liis friends have deemed him 
a candidate for a lunatic asylum ? 

New Orleans, March 6, 1861. 

Taking my customary stroll last evening, I sauntered 
into Canal street, and suddenly found myself in a dense 
and expectant crowd. Several clieers being given upon 
my arrival, I naturally inferred tliat it was an ovation to 
TJie Ti'ihune correspondent ; but native modesty, and a 
desire to blusli unseen, restrained me from any oral 
public acknowledgment. 

Just then, an obliging by-stander corrected my mis- 
apprehension by assuring me that the demonstration was 
to welcome home General Daniel E. Twiggs — the gallant 
hero, you know, who, stationed in Texas to protect the 
Government property, recently betrayed it all into the 
hands of the Rebels, to ' ' prevent bloodshed. ' ' His friends 
wince at the order striking his name from the army rolls 
as a coward and a traitor, and the universal execration 
heaped upon his treachery even in the border slave 
States. 

They did their best to give him a flattering recep- 
tion. The great thoroughfare was decked in its holiday 
attire. Flags were flying, and up and down, as far as the 
eye could reach, the balconies were crowded with spec- 
tators, and the arms of long files of soldiers glittered in the 
evening sunlight. One company bore a tattered and 
stained banner, which went through the Mexican war. 
Another carried richly ornamented colors, presented by 
the ladies of this city. There were Pelican flags, and 
Lone Star flags, and devices unlike any thing in the 
heavens above, the earth beneath, or the waters under 
the earth : but nowhere could I see the old National ban- 



1861.] Braxton Bragg. — Mr. Lincoln's Inaugural. 41 

ner. It was well ; on such, occasion the Stars and Stripes 
would be sadly out of place. 

After a welcoming speech, pronouncing Mm " not only 
the soldier of courage, but the patriot of fidelity and 
honor," and his own response, declaring that Tiere^ at least, 
he would "never be branded as a coward and traitor," 
the ex-general rode through some of the principal streets 
in an open barouche, bareheaded, bowing to the specta- 
tors. He is a venerable-looking man, apparently of 
seventy. His large head is bald upon the top ; but from 
the sides a few thin snow-white locks, utterly oblivious 
of the virtues of " the Twiggs Hair Dye,"* streamed in the 
breeze. He was accompanied in the carriage by General 
Braxton Bragg — the "Little-more-grape-Captain-Bragg" 
of Mexican war memory. By the way, persons who 
ought to know declare that General Taylor never used 
the expression, his actual language being : " Captain 
Bragg, give them !" 

President Lincoln' s Inaugural, looked for with intense 
interest, has just arrived. All the papers denounce it 
bitterly. Tlie Delia, which has advocated Secession 
these ten years, makes it a signal for the war-whoop : — 

" War is a great calamity ; but, -vritli all its horrors, it is a blessing to 
the deep, dark, and damning infamy of such a submission, such sur- 
renders, as the southern people are now called upon to make to a foreign 

* In Mexico, General Twiggs, while applying some preparation to a 
wound in his head, found it restoring his hair to its natural color. An 
enterprising nostrum-vender at once placed in market and advertised 
largely something which he styled the " Twiggs Hair Dye." Dr. Holmes 
makes the incident a target for one of his Parthian arrows : — 

" How many a youthful head we've seen put on its silver crown ! 
What sudden changes back again, toyouth's empurpled brown! 
But how to tell what's old or young — the tap-root from the sprigs, 
Since Florida revealed her fount to Ponce de Leon Twiggs ?" 



42 Louisiana Convention. isei.] 

invader. He ■who -would counsel such — ^he who would seek to dampen, 
discourage, or restrain the ardor and determination of the people to 
resist all such pretensions, is a traitor, who should be driven beyond our 
borders." 

" Foreign invader," is supposed to mean the President 
of our common country ! The " submission" denounced 
so terribly would be simply the giving up of the Gov- 
ernment property lately stolen by the Rebels, and the 
paying of the usual duties on imports ! 

March 8. 

The State convention which lately voted Louisiana 
out of the Union, sits daily in Lyceum Hall. The build- 
ing fronts Lafayette Square — one of the admirable little 
parks which are the pride of New Orleans. Upon the 
first floor is the largest public library in the city, 
though it contains less than ten thousand volumes. 

In the large, hall above are the assembled delegates. 
Ex-Governor Mouton, their president, a portly old gen- 
tleman, of the heavy-father order, sits upon the platform. 
Below him, at a long desk, Mr. Wheat, the florid clerk, 
is reading a report in a voice like a cracked bugle. Be- 
hind the president is a life-size portrait of Washington ; 
at his right, a likeness of Jefferson Davis, with thin, 
beardless face, and sad, hollow eyes. There is also a 
painting of the members, and a copy of the Secession 
ordinance, with lithographed fac similes of their signa^ 
tures. The delegates, you perceive, have made all the 
prelkninar}^ arrangements for being immortalized. Phys- 
ically, they are fine-looking men, with broad shoulders, 
deep chests, well-proportioned limbs, and stature de- 
cidedly above the northern standard. 



1861.] Inteoduction TO Rebel Ciecles. 



CHAPTER III. 

I will be correspondent to command, 
And do my spiriting gently. — ^Tempest. 

The good fortune which in Memphis enabled me to learn 
so directly the plans and aims of the Secession leaders, did 
not desert me in New Orleans. For several years I had 
been personally acquainted with the editor of the leading 
daily journal — an accomplished writer, and an original 
Secessionist. Uncertain whether he knew positively my 
political views, and fearing to arouse suspicion by 
seeming to avoid him, I called on him the day after 
reaching the city. 

He received me kindly, never surmising my errand ; 
invited me into the State convention, of which he was a 
member ; asked me to frequent his editorial rooms ; and 
introduced me at the "Louisiana Democratic Club," 
which had now ripened into a Secession club. Among 
prominent Rebels belonging to it were John Slidell and 
Judah P. Benjamin, of Jewish descent, whom Senator 
Wade of Ohio characterized so aptly as " an Israelite with 
Egyptian principles." 

Admission to that club was a final voucher for political 
soundness. The plans of the conspirators could hardly 
have been discussed with more freedom in the parlor of 
Jefferson Davis. Another friend introduced me at the 
Merchants' Reading-room, where were the same senti- 
ments and the same frankness. The newspaper office 
also was a standing Secession caucus. 

These associations gave me rare facilities for studying 
the aims and animus of the leading Revolutionists. I was 



44 Intensity of the Secession Feeling. [isgi. 

not compelled to ask questions, so constantly was infor- 
mation poured into my ears. I used no further deceit 
than to acquiesce quietly in the opinions everywhere 
heard. While I talked New Mexico and the Rocky 
Mountains, my companions talked Secession ; and told 
me more, every day, of its secret workings, than as a 
mere stranger I could have learned in a month. Socially, 
they were genial and agreeaWe. Their hatred of New 
England, which they seemed to consider " the cruel cause 
of all our woes, ' ' was very intense. They were also wont 
to denounce The Tribune^ and sometimes its unknown 
Southern correspondents, with peculiar l)itterness. At 
first their maledictions fell with startling and unpleasant 
force upon my ears, though I always concurred. But 
in time I learned to hear them not only with serenity, 
l)ut with a certain quiet enjoyment of the ludicrousness 
of the situation. 

I had not a single acquaintance in the city, whom I 
knew to be a Union man, or to whom I could talk with- 
out reserve. This was' very irksome — at times almost 
unbearable. How I longed to open my heart to some- 
body ! Recently as I had left the North, and strongly 
as I was anchored in my own convictions, the pressure 
on every hand was so great, all intelligence came so 
distorted through Rebel mediums, that at times I was 
nearly swept from my moorings. I could fully under- 
stand how many strong Union men had at last been drawn 
into the almost irresistible tide. It was an inexpressible 
relief to read the northern newspapers at the Democratic 
Club. There, even The Tribune was on file. The club 
was so far above suspicion that it might have patronized 
with impunity the organ of William Lloyd Garrison or 
Frederick Douglass. 

The vituperation which the southern journals heaped 



1861.] Rebel Newspapers and President Lincoln. 45 

upon Abraham Lincoln was something marvelous. The 
speeches of the newly elected President on his way to 
Washington, were somewhat rugged and uncouth ; not 
equal to the reputation he won in the great senatorial 
canvass with' Douglas, where debate and opposition 
developed his peculiar powers and stimulated his un- 
rivaled logic. The Rebel papers drew daily contrasts 
between the two Presidents, pronouncing Mr. Davis a 
gentleman, scholar, statesman ; and Mr. Lincoln a vul- 
garian, buffoon, demagogue. One of their favorite 
epithets was "idiot;" another, "baboon;" just as the 
Roman satirists, fifteen hundred years ago, were wont to 
ridicule the great Julian as an ape and a hairy savage. 

The times, have changed. While I write some of the 
same journalB, not yet extinguished by the fortunes of 
war, denounce Jefferson Davis with equal coarseness 
and bitterness, as an elegant, vacillating sentimentalist ; 
and mourn that he does not possess the rugged common 
sense and indomitable perseverance displayed by Abra- 
ham Lincoln ! 

While keeping up appearances on the Mexican ques- 
tion, by frequent inquiries about the semi-monthly 
steamers for Yera Cruz, I devoted myself ostensibly 
to the curious features of the city. Odd enough it 
sounded to hear persons say, "Let us go xvp to the 
river ;" but the phrase is accurate. New Orleans is two 
feet lower than the Mississippi, and protected against 
overfiow by a dike or levee. The city is quite narrow, 
and is drained into a great swamp in the rear. In front, 
new deposits of soil are constantly and rapidly made. 
Four of the leading business streets, nearest the levee, 
traverse what, a few years ago, was the bed of the river. 
Anywhere, by digging two feet below the surface, one 
comes to water. 



46 Cemeteries Above the Groun©, [isei. 

The earth is peculiarly spongy and yielding. The 
nnfinished Custom House, Ibuilt of granite from Quincy, 
Massachusetts, has sunk about two feet since its com- 
mencement, in 1846. The same is true Of other heavy 
buildings. Cellars and wells being impossible in the 
watery soil, refrigerators serve for the one, and cylin- 
drical upright wooden cisterns, standing aboveground, 
like towers, for the other. 

In the cemeteries the tombs are called "ovens." 
They are all built aboveground, of brick, stone, or 
stucco, closed up with mortar and cement. Sometimes 
the walls crack open, revealing the secrets of the char- 
nel-house. Decaying coffins are visible within; and 
once I saw a human skull protruding from the fissure 
of a tomb. Here, indeed, 

" Imperial O^sar, dead, and turned to clay, 
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away." 

Despite this revolting feature, the Catholic cemeteries 
are especially interesting About the humblest of the 
monuments, artificial wreaths, well-tended rose-beds, gar- 
lands of fresh flowers, changed daily, and vases inserted 
in the walls, to catch water and attract the birds, evince 
a tender, unforgetful attention to the resting-place of 
departed friends. More than half the inscriptions are 
French or Spanish. Yery few make any allusion to a 
future life. One imposing column marks the grave of 
Dominique You, the pirate, whose single virtue of patri- 
otism, exhibited under Jackson during the war of 1815, 
hardly justifies, upon his monument, the magnificent 
eulogy of Bayard: "The hero of a hundred battles, 
—a chevalier without fear and without reproach." 

In ISTew Orleans, grass growing upon the streets is no 
Rign of decadence. Stimulated by the rich, moist soil, it 



1861.] The French Quarter of New Orleans. 47 

springs up in profusion, not only in the smaller thorougli- 
fares, but among the bricks and paying-stones of the 
leading business avenues. 

Canal street is perhaps the finest promenade on the 
continent. It is twice the width of Broadway, and in 
the middle has two lines of trees, with a narrow lawn 
between them, extending its entire length. At night, 
as the long parallel rows of gas-lights glimmer through 
the quivering foliage, growing narrower and narrower in 
perspective till they unite and blend into one, it is a 
striking spectacle. — a gorgeous feast of the lanterns. On 
the lower side of it is the "French Quarter," more un- 
American even than the famous German portion of Cincin- 
nati known as " Over the Rhine." Here you may stroll 
for hours, ' ' a straggler from another civilization," hearing 
no word in your native tongue, seeing no object to 
remove the impression of an ancient French city. The 
dingy houses, "familiar with forgotten years," call up 
memories of old Mexican towns. They are grim, dusky 
relics of antiquity, usually but one story high, with steep 
projecting roofs, tiled or slated, wooden shutters over the 
doors, and multitudinous eruptions of queer old gables 
and dormer windows. 

New Orleans is the most Parisian of American cities. 
Opera-houses, theaters, and all other places of amusement 
are open on Sunday nights. The great French market 
wears its crowning glory only on Sunday mornings. 
Then the venders occupy not only several spacious 
buildings, but adjacent streets and squares. Their wares 
seem boundless in variety. Any thing you please — 
edible, drinkable, wearable, ornamental, or serviceable 
— from Wenham ice to vernal flowers and tropical fruits 
— from Indian moccasins to a silk dress-pattern — from 



48 French Market on Sunday Morning. [isgj 

ancient Chinese books to the freshest morning papers — 
ask, and it shall be given nnto yon. 

Sit down in a stall, over yonr tiny cup of excellent 
coffee, and you are hobnobbing with the antipodes — ^yonr 
next neighbor may be from Greenland's icy mountains, 
or India' s coral strand. Get up to resume your prome- 
nade, and 3^ou hear a dozen languages in as many steps ; 
while every nation, and tribe, and people — French, 
English, Irish, German, Spanish, Creole, Chinese, Afri- 
can, Quadroon, Mulatto, American — jostles you in good- 
humored confusion. 

Some gigantic negresses, with gaudy kerchiefs, like 
turbans, about their heads, are selling fruits, and sit 
erect as palm-trees. They look like African or Indian 
princesses, a little annoyed at being separated from their 
thrones and retinues, but none the less regal "for a' that." 
At every turn little girls, with rich Creole complexions and 
brilliant eyes, offer you aromatic bouquets of pinks, roses, 
verbenas, orange and olive blossoms, and other flowers 
to you unlvnown, unless, being a woman, you are a 
botanist by "gift of fortune," or, a man, that science has 
"come by nature." 

Upon Jackson Square, a delicious bit of verdure 
fronting the river, gloom antique public buildings, which 
were the seat of government in the days of the old 
Spanish regime. Near them stands the equally ancient 
cathedral, richly decorated within, where devout Catho- 
lics still worship. Its great congregations are mosaics 
of all hues and nationalities, mingling for the moment in 
the democratic equality of the Roman Church. 

Attending service in the cathedral one Sunday morn- 
ing, I found the aisles crowded with volunteers who, on 
the eve of departure for the debatable ground of Fort 
Pickens, had assembled to witness the consecration of 



1861.] Pressing Cotton by Machinery. 49 

their Secession flag, a ceremonial conducted with great 
pomp and solemnity hy the French priests. 

In the First Presbyterian Church, the Eev. Dr. 
Palmer, a divine of talent and local reputation, might 
he heard advocating the extremest Eebel views. The 
southerners had formerly been very bitter in their de- 
nunciation of political preaching ; but now the pulpit, as 
usual, made obeisance to the pews, and the pews beamed 
encouragement on the pulpit. 

If I may go abruptly from church to cotton — and 
they were not far apart in 'New Orleans — a visit to one of 
the great cotton-presses was worthy of note. It is a low 
building, occupying an entire square, with a hollow court 
in the center. It was filled with heaped-up cotton-bales, 
which overran their limits and covered the adjacent side- 
walks. Negroes stood all day at the doors receiving and 
discharging cotton. The bales are compressed by heavy 
machinery, driven by steam, that they may occupy the 
least space in shipping. They are first condensed on the 
plantations by screw-presses ; the cotton is compact upon 
arrival here ; but this great iron machine, which em- 
braces the bales in a hug of two hundred tons, diminishes 
them one-third more. The laborers are negroes and 
Frenchmen, who chant a strange, mournful refrain in 
time with their movements. 

The ropes of a bale are cut ; it is thrown under the 
press ; the great iron jaws of the monster close convul- 
sively, rolling it under the tongue as a sweet morsel. 
The ropes are tightened and again tied, the cover stitched 
up, and the bale rolled out to make room for another — 
all in about fifty seconds. It weighs five hundred 
pounds, but the workmen sieze it on all sides with 
their iron hooks, and toss it about 'like a schoolboy's 

ball. The superintendent informed me that they pressed, 
4 



50 The Barracks. — The New Orleans Levee, [isei. 

during the previous winter, more than forty thousand 
bales. 

The Rebels, with their early penchant for capturing 
empty forts and full treasuries, had seized the United 
States Branch Mint, containing three hundred thousand 
dollars, and the National barracks, garrisoned at the 
time by a single sergeant. Visiting, with a party of gen- 
tleman, the historic Jackson battle-ground, four miles 
below the city, I obtained a glimpse of the tall, gloomy 
Mint, and spent an hour in the long, low, white, deep- 
balconied barracks beside the river. 

The Lone Star flag of Louisiana was flying from the 
staff. A hundred and twenty freshly enlisted men of 
the State troops composed the garrison. Thi^ee of the 
officers, recent seceders from the Federal army, invited 
us into their quarters, to discuss political affairs over 
their Boui'bon and cigars. As all present assumed to be 
sanguine and uncompromising Rebels, the conversation 
was one-sided and uninteresting. 

We drove down the river-bank along the almost end- 
less rows of ships and steamboats. The con^merce of New 
Orleans, was more imposing than that of any other Amer- 
ican city except New York. It seemed to warrant the 
picture painted by the unrivaled orator, Prentiss, of 
the future years, "when this Crescent City shall have 
filled her golden horn." The long landing was now 
covered with western produce, cotton, and sugar, and 
fenced with the masts of hundreds of vessels. Some dis- 
plajed the three-striped and seven-starred flag of the 
"Southern Confederacy," many the ensigns of foreign 
nations, and a few the Stars and Stripes. 

We were soon among the old houses of the Creoles. "^ 

* Creole means "native;" but its New Orleans application is onlj to 
persons of Frencli or Spanish descent. 



1861.] Visit to the Jackson Battle-Ground. 51 

These anomalous people — a very large element of the 
population — properly belong to a past age or another 
land, and find themselves sadly at variance with Amer- 
ica in the nineteenth century. They seldom improve or 
sell their property ; permit the old fences and palings to 
remain around their antique houses ; are content to live 
upon small incomes, and rarely enter the modern dis- 
tricts. It is even asserted that old men among them 
have spent their whole lives in New Orleans without 
ever going above Canal street! Many have visited 
Paris, but are profoundly ignorant of Washington, New 
York, Philadelphia, and other northern cities. They 
are devout Catholics, sudden and quick in quarrel, and 
duelling continues one of their favorite recreations. 

We stopped at the old Spanish house — deeply em- 
bowered in trees — occupied as head-quarters by General 
Jackson, and saw the upper window from which, 
glass in hand, he witnessed the approach of the enemy. 
The dwelling is inhabited, and bears marks of the cannon- 
balls fired to dislodge him. Like his city quarters — a 
plain brick edifice, at one hundred and six. Royal-street, 
New Orleans — it is unchanged in appearance since that 
historic Eighth of January. 

A few hundred yards from the river, we reached the 
battle-ground where, in 1815, four thousand motley, 
undisciplined, half-armed recruits defeated twelve 
thousand veterans — the Americans losing but five 
men, the British seven hundred. This enormous dis- 
parity is explained by the sheltered position of one party 
behind a breastwork, and the terrible exposure of the 
other in its march, by solid columns, of half a mile over 
an open field, without protection of hillock or tree. A' 
horrible field, whence the Great Reaper gathered a 
bloody harvest! 



52 Incidents of the Battle. [isei. 

The swamp here is a mile from the riyer. Jackson 
dug a canal between them, throwing up the earth on 
one side for a iDreastwork, and turning a stream of water 
from the Mississippi through the trench. The British 
had an extravagant fear of the swamp, and believed that, 
attempting to penetrate it, they would be ingulfed in 
treacherous depths. So they marched up, with un- 
flinching Saxon courage, in the teeth of that terrible fire 
from the Americans, ranged four deep, behind the fortifi- 
cation ; and the affair became a massacre rather than a 
battle. 

The spongy soil of the breastwork (the tradition that 
bales of cotton were used is a fiction) absorbed the 
balls without any damage. It first proved what has 
since been abundantly demonstrated in the Crimean 
war, and the American Rebellion — the superiority of 
earthworks over brick and stone. The most solid 
masonry will be broken and battered down sooner or 
later, but shells and solid shot can do little harm to 
earthworks. 

Jackson's army was a reproduction of Falstaff's 
ragamufiins. It was made up of Kentucky backwoods- 
men, Kew Orleans clergymen, lawyers, merchants and 
clerks ; pirates and ruflians just released from the cala- 
boose to aid in the defense ; many negroes, free and 
slave, with a liberal infusion of nondescript city vaga- 
bonds, noticeable chiefly for their tatters, and seeming, 
from their "looped and windowed raggedness," to hang 
out perpetual flags of truce to the enemy. 

Judah Trouro, a leading merchant, while carrying 
ammunition, was struck in the rear by a cannon-ball, 
which cut and bore away a large slice of his body ; but, 
in spite of the awkward loss, he lived many years, to 
leave an enviable memory for pliilanthropy and public 



1861.] A Peculiar Free Negro Population. 53 

spirit. Parton tells of a young American who, during 
tlie battle, stooped forward to ligM a cigar ; and when 
he recovered his position saw that a man exactly behind 
him was blown to pieces, and his brains scattered over 
the parapet, by an exploding shell. 

More than half of Jackson' s command was composed 
of negroes, who were principally employed with the 
spade, but several battalions of them were armed, and 
in the presence of the whole army received the thanks of 
General Jackson for their gallantry. On each anniver- 
sary the negro survivors of the battle always turned out 
in large numbers — so large, indeed, as to excite the 
suspicion that they were not genuine. 

The free colored population, at the time of my visit, 
was a very peculiar feature of New Orleans. Its mem- 
bers were chiefly of San Domingo origin ; held themselves 
altogether aloof from the other blacks, owned numer- 
ous slaves, and were the most rigorous of masters. Fre- 
quently their daughters were educated in Paris, married 
whites, and in some cases the traces of their negro origin 
were almost entirely obliterated. This, however, is not 
peculiar to that class. It is very unusual anywhere in 
the South to find persons of pure African lineage. A 
tinge of white blood is almost always detected. 

Our company had an invaluable cicerone in the per- 
son of Judge Alexander Walker, author of "Jackson 
and New Orleans," the most clear and entertaining work 
upon the battle, its causes and results, yet contributed to 
American history. He had toiled unweariedly through 
all the ofiicial records, and often visited the ground with 
men who participated in the engagement. He pointed 
out positions, indicated the spot where Packenham fell, 
and drew largely upon his rich fund of anecdote, tra- 
dition, and biography. 



54 All About a " Black Republican Flag." isei.] 

A plain, imfinislied sliaft of Missouri limestone, upon 
a rough iDrick foundation, now marks the l3attle-field. It 
was commenced hy a legislative appropriation ; but the 
fund "became exhausted and the work ceased. The level 
cotton plantation, ditched for draining, now shows no 
evidence of the conflict, except the still traceable line of 
the old canal, with detached pools of stagnant water in a 
fringe of reeds, willows, and live oaks. 

A negro patriarch, with silvery hair, and legs infirm 
of purpose, hobbled up, to exhibit some balls collected 
on the ground. The bullets, which were flattened, he 
assured us, had "hit somebody." No doubt they were 
spurious ; but we purchased a few buckshots and 
fragments of shell from the ancient Ethiop, and rode 
back to the city along avenues lined mth flowers and 
shrubbery. Here grew the palm — the characteristic 
tree of the South. It is neither graceful nor beautiful ; 
but looks like an inverted umbrella upon a long, slender 
staff. Ordinary pictures very faithfully represent it. 

l^EW Orleans, March 11, 1861. 

We are a good deal exercised, just now, about a new 
grievance. The papers charged, a day or two since, that 
the ship Adelaide Bell, from IS'ew Hampshire, had flung 
defiant to the breeze a Black Republican flag, and that 
her captain vowed he would shoot anybody attempting 
to cut it down. As one of the journals remarked, "his 
audacity was outrageous." ^n 2^cissant, do you know 
what a Black Republican flag is ? I have never encoun- 
tered that mythical entity in my travels ; but 'tis a fear- 
ful thing to think of — is it not ? 

The reporter of The Crescent, with charming in- 
genuousness, describes it as "so much like the flag of 
the late United States, that few would notice the differ- 



[1861. Vice-President Hamlin a Mulatto. 55 

ence." In fact, lie adds, it is the old Stars and Stripes, 
with a red stripe instead of a white one immediately 
Ibelow the nnion. Of course, we' are greatly incensed. 
It is flat burglary, you know, to love the Star Spangled 
Banner itself ; and as for a Black Republican flag — why, 
that is most tolerable and not to be endured. 

Captain Robertson, the "audacious," has been com- 
pelled, publicly, to deny the imputation. He asserts 
that, in the simplicity of his heart, he has been using it 
for years as a United States flag. But the newspapers 
adhere stoutly to the charge ; so the presumption is that 
the captain is playing some infernal Yankee trick. Who 
shall deliver us from the body of this Black Republican 
flag? 

If it were possible, I would like to see the " Southern 
Confederacy" work out its own destiny; to see how 
Slavery would flourish, isolated from free States; how 
the securities of a government, founded on the right of 
any of its members to break it up at pleasure, would 
stand in the markets of the world ; how the principle of 
Democracy would sustain itself in a confederation whose 
corner-stones are aristocracy, oligarchy, despotism. This 
is the government which, in the language of one of its 
admirers, shall be " stronger than the bonds of Orion, and 
benigner than the sweet influences of the Pleiades." 

A few days since, I was in a circle of southern ladies, 
when one of them remarked : 

"I am glad Lincoln has not been killed." 

"Why so?" asked another. 

" Because, if he had been, Hamlin would become 
President, and it would be a shame to have a mulatto at 
the head of the Government." 

A little discussion which followed developed that 
every lady present, except one, believed Mr. Hamlin a 



56 Northerners Living in the South. [isei. 

mulatto. Yet the company was comparatively intelli- 
gent, and all its members live in a flourishing com- 
mercial metropolis. • You may infer something of the 
knowledge of the North in rural districts, enlightened 
only by weekly visits from Secession newspapers ! 

We are enjoying that soft air "which comes caress- 
ingly to the brow, and produces in the lungs a luxurious 
delight." I notice, on the streets, more than one pre- 
monition of summer, in the form of linen coats. The 
yards and cemeteries, smiling with myriads of roses and 
pinks, are carpeted with velvet grass ; the morning air 
is redolent of orange and clover blossoms, and nosegays 
abound, sweet with the breath of the tropics. 

March 15. 

Meii of northern nativity are numerous throughout 
the Gulf States. Many are leading merchants of the 
cities, and a few, planters in the interior. Some have 
gone north to stay until the storm is over. A part of 
those who remain out-Herod the native fire-eaters in 
zeal for Secession. Their violence is suspicious; it 
oversteps the modesty of nature. I was recently in a 
mixed company, where one person was conspicuously, 
bitter upon the border slave States, denouncing them 
as "playing second fiddle to the Abolitionists," and 
"traitors to southern rights." 

"Who is hef I asked of a southern gentleman be- 
side me. 

"He?" was the indignant reply; "why, he is a 

northerner, him ! He is talking all this for effect. 

What does he care about our rights? He don't own 
slaves, and wasn't raised in the South; if it were 
fashionable, he would be an Abolitionist. I'd as soon 
trust a nigger-stealer as such a man !" 



1861.] PfiEPAEmG AND TRANSMITTING COERESPONDENCE. 57 



CHAPTER IV. 

'Tis my vocation, Hal ; 'tis no sin for a man to labor in his vocation. — King Henet IV. 

The city was measurably quiet, "but arrests, and 
examinations of suspected Abolitionists, were frequent. 
In general, I felt little personal disquietude, except the 
fear of encountering some one wlio knew my ante- 
cedents ; but about once a week something transpired 
to make me thoroughly uncomfortable for the moment. 

I attended daily the Louisiana Convention, sitting 
among the spectators. I could take no notes, but relied 
altogether upon memory. In corresponding, I endeavored 
to cover my tracks as far as possible. Before leaving 
Cincinnati, I had encountered a friend just from New 
Orleans, and induced him to write for me one or two 
letters, dated in the latter city. They were copied, with 
some changes of style, and published. Hence investiga- 
tion would have shown that The Tribune writer began 
two or three weeks before I reached the city, and thrown 
a serious obstacle in the way of identifying him. 

My dispatches, .transmitted sometimes by mail, some- 
times by express, were addressed alternately to half a 
dozen banking and commercial firms in New York, who 
at once forwarded them to The Tribune editorial rooms. 
They were written like ordinary business letters, treating 
of trade and monetary afiairs, and containing drafts upon 
supposititious persons, quite princely in amount. I never 
learned, however, that they appreciably enlarged the 



58 Guarding Letters against Scrutiny. [isei. 

exchequer of tlieir recipients. Indeed, they were a good 
deal like the voluminous epistles which Mr. Toots, in 
his school-hoy days, was in the hahit of writing to him- 
self. 

I used a system of cipher, hy which all phrases be- 
tween certain private marks were to he exactly re- 
versed in printing. Thus, if I characterized any one as 
" patriot and an honest man," inclosing the sentence in 
brackets, it was to be rendered a "demagogue and a 
scoundrel." All matter between certain other marks 
was to be omitted. K a paragraph commenced at the 
very edge of a sheet, it was to be printed precisely as 
it stood. But beginning it half across the page indi- 
cated that it contained something to be translated by 
the cipher. 

The letters, therefore, even if examined, would hardly 
be comprehended. Whether tampered with or not, they 
always reached the office. I never kept any papers on 
my person, or in pay room, which could excite suspicion, 
if read. 

In writing, I assumed the tone of an old citizen, some- 
times remarking that during a residence of fourteen years 
in New Orleans, I had never before seen such a whirl- 
wind of j)assion, etc. In recording incidents I was often 
compelled to change names, places, and dates, though 
always faithful to the fact. Toward the close of my 
stay, the correspondence appearing to pass unopened, I 
gave minute and exact details, designing to be in the 
N'orth before the letters could return in print. 

Two incidents will illustrate the condition of affairs 
better than any general description. Soon after Mr. 
Lincoln' s election, a Philadelphian reached New Orleans, 
on a collecting tour. One evening he was standing in 
the counting-room of a merchant, who asked him : — 



186L] A Philadelphia^ among the Eebels. 59 

"Well, now you Black RepiilDlicaiis have elected 
yonr President, wliat are you going to do next?" 

"We will show you," was the laughing response. 

Both spoke in jest ; hut the bookkeeper of the 
house, standing hy, with his hack turned, belonged 
to the Minute Men, who, that very evening, hy a dele- 
gation of fifty, waited on the Philadelphian at the St. 
James Hotel. They began by demanding whether he 
was a Black Republican. He at once surmised that he 
was obtaining a glimpse of the hydra of Secession, be- 
side which the armed rhinoceros were an agreeable com- 
panion, and the rugged Russian bear a pleasant house- 
hold pet. His face grew pallid, but he replied, with 
dignity and firmness : 

"I deny your right to ask me any such questions." 

The inquisitors, who were of good social position and 
gentlemanly manners, claimed that the public emer- 
gency was so great as to justify them in examining all 
strangers who excited suspicion ; and that he left them 
only the alternative of concluding him an Abolitionist 
and an incendiary. At last he informed them truthfully 
that he had never sympathized with the Anti- Slavery 
party, and had always voted the Democratic ticket. 
They next inquired if the house which employed him 
was Black Republican. 

"Gentlemen," he replied, "it is Si business firm, not 
a political one. I never heard politics mentioned by 
either of the partners. I don't know whether they are 
Republicans or Democrats." 

He cheerfully permitted his baggage to be searched 
by the Minute Men, who, finding nothing objectionable, 
bade him good-evening. But, just after they left, a 
mob of Roughs, attracted by the report that an Abo- 
litionist was stopping there, entered the hotel. They 



60 Secession vs. Sincerity. [isei. 

were very noisy and profane, crying — " Let us see Mm ; 
bring out tlie scoundrel !" 

His friend, the merchant, spirited him out of the 
house through a "back door, and drove him to the rail- 
way station, whence a midnight train was starting for 
the JSTorth. His pursuers, finding the room of their 
victim empty, followed in hot haste to the depot. The 
merchant saw them coming, and again conveyed him 
away to a private room. He was kept concealed for 
three days, until the excitement subsided, and then 
went north by a night train. 

One of the clerks at the hotel where I was boarding 
had been an acquaintance of mine in the I^orth ten years 
before. Though I now saw him several times a day, 
politics were seldom broached between us. But, when- 
ever they came up, we both talked mild Secession. I 
did not believe him altogether sincere, and I presume he 
did me equal justice ; but instinct is a great matter, and 
we were cowards on instinct. 

During the next summer, I chanced to meet him un- 
expectedly in Chicago. After we exchanged greetings, 
his first question was — 

"What did you honestly think of Secession while in 
N"ew Orleans?" 

" Do you know what I was doing there ?" 

" On your way to Mexico, were you not?" 

"ISTo; corresponding for :7%e 7V?"5w7e." 

His eyes expanded visibly at this information, and 
he inquired, with some earnestness — 

"Do you know what would have been done with 
you if you had been detected ?" 

" I have my suspicions, but, of course, do not know. 
Do you?" 

" Yes ; you would have been hung !" 



1861.] A Mania for Southern Manufacturing. 61 

" Do you think sol" 

" I am sure of it. Yon would not have had a shadow 
of chance for your life 1" 

My friend knew the Secessionists thoroughly, and 
his evidence was doubtless trustworthy. I felt no in- 
clination to test it by repeating the experiment. 

The establishment of domestic manufactures was 
always a favorite theme throughout the South ; but the 
manufactures themselves continued very rudimentary. 
The furniture dealers, for example, made a pretense of 
making their own wares. They invariably showed cus- 
tomers through their workshops, and laid great stress 
upon their encouragement of southern industry ; but 
they reaUy received seven-eighths of their furniture from 
the North, having it delivered at back-doors, under 
cover of the night. 

Secession gave a new impetus to all sorts of manufac- 
turing projects. The daily newspapers constantly advo- 
cated them, but were quite oblivious of the vital truth 
that skilled labor will have opinions, and opinions can 
not be tolerated in a slave community. 

One sign on Canal- street read, "Sewing Machines 
manufactured on Southern Soil" — a statement whose 
truth was more than doubtful. The agent of a rival 
machine advertised that his patent was owned in I^ew 
Orleans, and, therefore, pre-eminently worthy of patron- 
age. Little pasteboard boxes were labeled " Superior 
Southern Matches," and the newspapers announced 
exultingly that a candy factory was about to be estab- 
lished. 

But the greatest stress was laid upon the Southern 
Shoe Factory, on St. Ferdinand-street— a joint stock con- 
cern, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars. 
It was only two months old, and, therefore, experi- 



62 Visit to the Southern Shoe Factory. [isei. 

mental ; iDut its work was in great demand, and it was 
the favorite illustration of tlie feasibility of southern 
manufactures. 

Sauntering in, one evening, I introduced myself as a 
stranger, drawn thither by curiosity. The superintend- 
ent courteously invited me to go through the establish- 
ment with him. 

His physiognomy and manners impressed me as un- 
mistakably northern ; but, to make assurance doubly 
sure, I ventured some remark which inferred that he 
was a native of New Orleans. He at once informed me 
that he was from St. Louis. When I pursued the mat- 
ter further, by speaking of some recent improvements in 
that city, he replied : 

" I was born in St. Louis, but left there when I was 
twelve months old. Philadelphia has been my home 
since, until I came here to take charge of this establish- 
ment." 

The work was nearly all done with machinery run 
by steam. As we walked through the basement, and 
he pointed out the implements for cutting and pressing 
sole-leather, I could not fail to notice that every one 
bore the label of its manufacturer, followed by these 
incendiary words : "Boston, Massachusetts !" 

Then we ascended to the second story, where sewing 
and pegging were going on. All the stitching was done 
as in the large northern manufactories, with sewing- 
machines run by steam — a combination of two of the 
greatest mechanical inventions. Add a third, and in the 
printing-press, the steam-engine, and the sewing-ma- 
chine, 3"ou have the most potent material agencies of 
civilization. 

Here was the greatest curiosity of all — the patent 
pegging-machine, which cuts out the pegs from a thin 



1861.] Where its Facilities Came From. 63 

strip of wood, inserts tlie awl, and pegs two rows 
around tlie sole of a large shoe, more regularly and 
durably tlian it can be done by hand — all in less than 
twenty-five seconds. ISTeed I add that it is a Yankee 
invention ? One machine for finishing, smoothing, and 
polishing the soles came from Paris ; but all the others 
bore that ominous label, "Boston, Massachusetts!" In 
the third story, devoted to fitting the soles and other 
finishing processes, the same fact was apparent — every 
machine was from New England. 

The work was confined exclusively to coarse planta- 
tion brogans, which were sold at from thirteen to nine- 
teen dollars per case of twelve pairs. Shoes of the same 
quality, ^t the great factories in Milford, Haverhill, and 
Lynn, Massachusetts, were then selling by the manufac- 
turers at prices ranging from six to thirteen dollars per 
case. In one apartment we found three men making 
boxes for packing the shoes, from boards already sawed 
and dressed. 

" Where do you get your lumber ?" I asked. 

"It comes from Illinois," replied my cicerone. 
"We have it planed and*cut out in St. Louis — labor is so 
high here." 

" Your workmen, I presume, are from this city ?" 

"No, sir. The leading men in all departments are 
from the North, mainly from Massachusetts and Phila- 
delphia. We are compelled to pay them high salaries — 
from sixty to three hundred doUars per month. The 
subordinate workmen, whom we hope soon to put 
in their ]places, we found here. We employ forty-seven 
persons, and turn out two hundred and fifty pairs of 
brogans daily. We find it impossible to supply the de- 
mand, and are introducing more machinery, which will 
soon enable us to make six hundred pairs per day." 



64 How " Southern" Shoes weee Made. [isei. 

" Where do you procure tlie "birch for pegs ?" 

"From Massachusetts. It comes to us cut in strips 
and rolled, ready for use." 

" Where do you get your leather ?" 

" Well, sir" (with a searching look, as if a little sus- 
picious of being quizzed), " it also comes from the North, 
at present ; but we shall soon have tanneries established. 
The South, especially Texas, produces the finest hides in 
the country ; but they are nearly all sent north, to be 
tanned and curried, and then brought back in the form 
of leather." 

Thanking the superintendent for his courtesy, and 
wishing him a very good evening, I strolled homeward, 
reflecting upon the Southern Shoe Factory. It was ad- 
mirably calculated to appeal to local patriotism, and 
demonstrate the feasibility of southern manufacturing. 
Its northern machinery, run by northern workmen, 
under a northern superintendent, turned out brogans of 
northern leather, fastened with northern pegs, and 
packed in cases of northern pine, at an advance of only 
about one hundred per cent, upon northern prices ! 

!N'ew Orleans afforded to the fetranger few illustrations 
of the "Peculiar Institution." Along the streets, you 
saw the sign, " Slave Depot — TsTegroes bought and sold," 
upon buildings which were filled with blacks of every 
age and of both sexes, waiting for purchasers. The 
newspapers, although recognizing slavery in general as 
the distinguishing cause which made southern gentlemen 
gaUant and "high-toned," and southern ladies fair and 
accomplished, were yet reticent of details. They would 
sometimes record briefly the killing of a master by hia 
negroes ; the arrest of A., charged with being an Aboli- 
tionist ; of B., for harboring or tampering with slaves ; of 
C. — f. m. c. (free man of color) — ^for violating one of the 



1861.] Studying Southern Society. 65 

many laws that hedged Mm in ; and, very rarely, of D., 
for cruelty to Ms slaves. But their advertising columns 
were filled with announcements of slave auctions, and 
long descriptions of the negroes to be sold. Said The 
Crescent : 

" We liave for a long time thouglit that no man ought to be allowed 
to write for the northern Press, unless he has passied at least two years 
of his existence in the Slave States of the South, doing nothing hut 
studying southern institutions, southern society, and the character and 
sentiments of the southern people." 

There was much truth in this, though not in the sense 
intended by the writer. Strangers spending but a short 
time in the South were liable to very erroneous views. 
They saw only the exterior of a system, which looked 
pleasant and patriarchal: They had no opportunity of 
learning that, within, it was full of dead men's bones 
and all uncleanness. Northern men were so often de- 
ceived as to make one skeptical of the traditional acute- 
ness of the Yankee. The genial and hospitable south- 
erners would draw the long bow fearfully. A MempMs 
gentleman assured a northern friend of mine that, on 
Sundays, it was impossible for a white man to hire a car- 
riage in that city, as the negroes monopolized them all 
for pleasure excursions ! 

One of my New Orleans compamons, who was frank 
and candid upon other subjects, used to tell me the most 
egregious stories respecting the slaves. As, for 
instance, that their marriage-vows were almost univer- 
sally held sacred by the masters ; the virtue of negro 
women respected, and families rarely separated, I pre- 
served my gravity, never disputing him ; but he must 
have known that a visit to any of the half-dozen slave 
auctions, within three minutes' walk of his office, would 
disprove all these statements. 



66 Reporting a Slave Auction. [isei. 

These slave anctions were the only pnhlic places 
where the primary social formation of the South cropped 
out sharply. I attended them frequently, as the best 
school for "studying southern institutions, southern so- 
ciety, and the character and sentiments of the southern 
people." 

I remember one in which eighty slaves were sold, one 
after another. A second, at which twenty-one negroes 
were disposed of, I reported, in extenso, from notes 
written upon blank cards in my pocket during its 
progress. Of course, it was not safe to make any 
memoranda openly. 

The auction was in the great bar-room of the St. 
Charles Hotel, a spacious, airy octagonal apartment, 
with a circular range of Ionic columns. The marble bar, 
covering three sides of the room, was doing a brisk busi- 
ness. Three perturbed tapsters were bustling about to 
supply with fluids the bibulous crowd, which by no 
means did its spiriting gently. 

The negroes stood in a row, in front of the auction- 
eer' s platform, with numbered tickets pinned upon their 
coats and frocks. Thus, a young woman with a baby 
in her arms, who rolled his great wMte eyes in astonish- 
ment, was ticketed "l^o. 7." Referring to the printed 
list, I found this description : 

" 7. Betty, . aged 15 years, and child 4 months, No. 1 field-hand and 
house-servant, very likely. Fully guaranteed." 

In due time, Betty and her boy were bid off for 
$1,165. 

Those already sold were in a group at the other end 
of the platfoiTU. One young woman, in a faded frock 
and sun-bonnet, and wearing gold ear-rings, had straight 
brown hair, hazel eyes, pure European features, and a 



1861.] Sale of a White Girl. 67 

very light complexion. I was iinable to detect in her 
face the slightest trace of negro lineage. Her color, 
features, and movements were those of an ordinary coun- 
try girl of the white working class in the South. A 
l)y-stander assured me that she was sold under the ham- 
mer, just before I entered. She associated familiarly 
with the negroes, and left the room with them when the 
sale was concluded ; but no one would suspect, under 
other circumstances, that she was tinged with African 
blood. 

The spectators, about two hundred in number, were 
not more than one-tenth bidders. There were planters 
from the interior, with broad shoulders and not unpleas- 
ing faces ; city merchants, and cotton factors ; fast young 
men in pursuit of excitement, and strangers attracted by 
curiosity. 

Among the latter was a spruce young man in the 
glossiest of broadcloth, and the whitest of linen, with an 
unmistakable Boston air. He lounged carelessly about, 
and endeavored to look quite at ease, but made a very 
brilliant failure. His restless eye and tell-tale counte- 
nance indicated clearly that he was among the Philistines 
for the first time, and held them in great terror. 

There were some professional slave-dealers, and many 
nondescripts who would represent the various shades 
between loafers and blacklegs, in any free community. 
They were men of thick lips, sensual mouths, full chins, 
large necks, and bleared eyes, suggesting recent dissipa- 
tion. They were a "hard-looking" company. I would 
not envy a known Abolitionist who should fall into their 
unrestrained clutches. No prudent life-insurance com- 
pany would take a risk in him. 

The auctioneer descanted eloquently upon the merits 
of each of his chattels, seldom dwelling upon one more 



68 Women on the Block. [isei. 

tlian five miniites. An herculean fellow, witli an immense 
cliest, was dressed in rusty l^lack, and wore a superan- 
nuated silk tat. He looked tlie decayed gentleman to a 
cliarm, and was l)id off for $840. A plump yellow boy, 
also in black, silk hat and all, seemed to think being 
sold rather a good joke, grinning broadly the while, and, 
at some jocular remark, showing two rows of white teeth 
almost from ear to ear. He brought $1,195, and appeared 
proud of commanding so high a figure. 

Several light quadroon gMs brought large prices. 
One was surrounded by a group of coarse-looking men, 
who addressed her in gross language, shouting with 
laughter as she turned away to hide her face, and rudely 
manipulating her arms, shoulders, and breasts. Her age 
was not given. "That's the trouble with niggers," re- 
marked a planter to me; "you never can tell how old 
they are, and so you get swindled." One mother and 
her infant sold for $1,415. 

Strolling into the St. Charles, a few days later, I found 
two sales in full career. On one platform the auctioneer 
was recommending a well-proportioned, full-blooded 
negro, as "a very likely and intelligent young man, gen- 
tlemen, who would have sold readily, a year ago, for 
thirteen hundred dollars. And now I am offered only 
eight hundred — eight hundred — eight hundred — eight 
hundred ; are you all done ?" 

On the opposite side of the room another auctioneer, 
in stentorian tones, proclaimed the merits of a pretty 
quadroon girl, tastefully dressed, and wearing gold finger 
and ear rings. " The girl, gentlemen, is only fifteen years 
old; warranted sound in every particular, an excellent 
seamstress, which would make her worth a thousand 
dollars, if she had no other qualifications. She is sold 
^r no fault, but simply because her owner must have 



1861.J Mothers and Children. — "Defects." 69 

money. 'No married man had Ibetter l)uy lier ; she is too 
handsome." The girl was bid off at $1,100, and stepped 
down to make way for a field-hand. Ascending the 
steps, he stumbled and fell, at which the auctioneer 
saluted him with " Come along, G — d d — n you !" 

Mothers and their very young children were not often 
separated ; but I frequently saw husbands and wives 
sold apart ; no pretense being made of keeping them 
together. ISTegroes were often offered with what was 
decorously described as a "defect" in the arm, or 
shoulder. Sometimes it appeared to be the result of 
accident, sometimes of punishment. I saw one sold who 
had lost two toes from each foot. No public inquiries 
were made, and no explanation given. He replied to 
questions that his feet "hurt him sometimes," and was 
bid off at $625 — about two-thirds of his value had it not 
been for the "defect." 

Some slaves upon the block — especially the mothers — 
looked sad and anxious ; but three out of four appeared 
careless and unconcerned, laughing and jesting with each 
other, both before and after the sale. The young people, 
especially, often seemed in the best of spirits. 

And yet, though familiarity partially <^eadened the 
feeling produced by the first one I witnessed, a slave 
auction is the most utterly revolting spectacle that I ever 
looked upon. Its odiousness does not lie in the lustful 
glances and expressions which a young and comely 
woman on the block always elicits ; nor in the indelicate 
conversation and handling to which she is subjected; 
nor in the universal infusion of white blood, which tells 
its own story about the morality of the institution ; nor 
in the separation of families ; nor in the sale of women — 
as white as our own mothers and sisters — made pariahs 
by an imperceptible African taint ; nor in the scars and 



70 A Most Revolting Spectacle. [isei. 

"defects," suggestive of cruelty, wMcIl are sometimes 
seen. 

All tliese features are bad enougli, but many sales 
exhibit few of them, and are conducted decorously. The 
great revolting characteristic lies in the essence of the 
system itself — that claim of absolute ownership in a 
human being with an immortal soul — of the right to buy 
and sell him like a horse or a bale of cotton — which 
insults Democracy, belies Civilization, and blasphemes 
Christianity. 

In March, there was a heavy snow-storm in 'New 
York. Telegraphic intelligence of it reached me in an 
apartment fragrant with orange blossoms, where persons 
in linen clothing were discussing strawberries and ice- 
cream. It made one shiver in that delicious, luxurious 
climate. Blind old Milton was right. Where should he 
place the Garden of Eden but in the tropics ? How 
should he paint the mother of mankind but in 

" The flowing gold 



Of lier loose tresses," 
as a blonde — the distinctive type of northern beauty ? 



1861.] Northerners and the Minute Men. 71 



CHAPTER V. 

There's villany abroad ; this letter shall tell you more. — Love's Labok Lost. " 

Neaely every nortlierner whom I heard of in tlie 
South, as suffering from the suspicion of Abolitionism, 
was really a pro-slavery man, who had been opposing 
the Abolitionists all his life. I recollect an amusing in- 
stance of a man, originally from a radical little town in 
Massachusetts, who had been domiciled for several years 
in Mississippi. While in New England, during the cam- 
paign after which Mr. Lincoln was elected, he expressed 
pro-slavery sentiments so odious that he was with diffi- 
culty protected from personal violence. 

He was fully persuaded in his heart of hearts of the 
divinity of Slavery ; and, I doubt not, willing to fight 
for it. But his northern birth made him an object of 
suspicion ; and, immediately after the outbreak of Seces- 
sion, the inexorable Minute Men waited upon him, 
inviting him, if he wished to save his life, to prepare to 
quit the State in one hour. He was compelled to leave 
behind property to the amount of twenty thousand 
dollars. His case was one of many. 

Even from a Rebel standpoint, there was an unpleas- 
ant injustice about this. Perhaps Democrats were 
almost the only northerners now in the South — Repub- 
licans and Abolitionists staying away, in the exercise of 
that discretion which is the better part of valor. 

I well remember thinking, as I strolled down to the 
post-office one evening, with a long letter in my pocket, 
which gave a minute and bitterly truthful description of 
the slave auctions : 



72 A Lively Discussion. [isei. 

"If tlie Minute Men were to pounce upon me now, 
and find this dispatch., no amount of plausible talking 
could save me. There would be a vacancy on The 
'tribune staff within the next hour." 

But when the message Was safely deposited in the 
letter-boXj I experienced a sort of reJief in the feeling 
that if the Rebels were now to mob or imprison me, I 
should at least have the satisfaction of knowing they 
were not mistaking souls ; and that, if 1 were forced to 
emulate Saint Paul in 'labors more abundant, in stripes 
above measure, in pains more frequent, in deaths oft," I 
should, in their code, most richly have earned mar- 
tyrdom. 

l^E-^ &B.LEANS, MCifcJl 11, 1861- 

Yesterday tVaS a lively day in the Convention. Mr, 
Bienvenu threw a hot shot into the Secession camp, inj 
the shape of an ordinance demanding a report of iJie 
official yote in each parish (county) by wMeh the dele- 
gates -Were elected. This would prove that the popular 
Vote of the State was against immediate Secession by a 
maj ority of sever^il hundred. The "CoiiTention. would not 
permit sUch exposure of its defiance ^f the popular will ; 
•and, by seventy-three to twenty -tiro, refused to consider 
the question. 

A warm di&cU'ssron enS'Ued, ^n the ordinance for sub- 
mitting the "Constitution 'of the Confederate States of 
America" to the popular vote, for ratification or rejection. ♦;! 
The ablest s,rgum-ent against it was by Thomas J. l| 
Semmes, of IVew Orieans, formerly attorney-general of « 
tiouisiana. S\3 Is a keen, wiry-looking, spectacled ge^- ^ 
tleman, who, in a terse, incisive speech, made the T^esfe 
^f a bad cause. The pith of hia argument was^ thafc 
Kepublican "Governments are not based upon puje De- 
mocracy^ but upon what Mr, Calhoun termed " concurring 



1861.] Boldness of Union Members, 73 

majorities." The voters had delegated full powers to 
the Convention, which was the "sublimated, concen- 
trated quintessence of the sovereignty of the people." 

The speaker's lip curled with ineffalble scorn as he 
rang the changes' upon the words "mere numerical major- 
ities." Just now, this is a favorite phrase with the 
Rebels throughout the South. Yet they all admit that 
a majority, even of Me vote, in Mississippi or Yirginia, 
justly controls the action of the State, and binds the 
minority. I wish they would explain why a "mere 
numerical majority" is more oppressive in a collection 
of States than in a single commonwealth. 

Mr. Add Rozier, of New Orleans, in a bold speech, 
advocated submitting the constitution to the people. On 
being asked by a member — "Did you vote for the 
Secession ordinance several weeks ago?" he replied, 
emphatically : — 

" N"o ; and, so help me Grod, I never will !" 

A spontaneous outburst of applause from the lobby 
gave an index of the stifled public sentiment. Mr. 
Rozier charged that the Secessionists knew they were 
acting against the popular will, and dared not appeal to 
the people. Until the Montgomery constitution should 
become the law of the land, he utterly spumed it, spat 
upon it, trampled it under his feet. 

Mr. Christian Roselius, also of this city, advocated 
the ordinance with equal boldness and fervor. He 
insisted that it was based on the fundamental principle 
of Republicanism — that this Convention was no Long 
Parliament to rule Louisiana without check or limit ; and 
he ridiculed with merciless sarcasm Mr. Semmes' s theory 
of the "sublimated, concentrated quintessence of the 
sovereignty of the people." 

The inexorable majority here cut off debate, calling 



74 Another Exciting Discussion. [isei. 

the previous question, and defeated tlie ordinance Iby a 
vote of severity-three to twenty-six. 

This "body is a good specimen of the Secession 
Oligarchy. It appointed, from its own members, the 
Louisiana delegates to the Convention of all the seceded 
States wMch framed the Montgomery Constitution, and 
now it proposes to pass finally upon their action, leaving 
the people quite out of sight. 

March, 21. 

Another exciting day in the Convention. Subject : 
" The adoption of the Montgomery Constitution." Five 
or six Union members fought it very gallantly, and de- 
nounced unsparingly the plan of a Cotton Confederacy, 
and the South Carolina policy of trampling upon the 
rights of the people. The majority made little attempt 
to refute these arguments, but some of the angry mem- 
bers glared fiercely upon Messrs. Roselius, Rozier, and 
Bienvenu, who certainly displayed high moral and phy- 
sical courage. It is easy for you in the IS'orth to de- 
nounce Secession; but to oppose it here, as those gen- 
tlemen did, requires more nerve than most men possess. 

The speech of Mr. Roselius was able and bitter. This 
was not a constitution ; it was merely a league — a treaty 
of alliance. It sprung from an audacious, unmitigated 
oligarchy. It was a retrogression of six hundred years 
in the science of government. We were told (here the 
speaker's sarcasm of manner was ludicrous and inimit- 
able, drawing shouts of laughter even from the leading 
Secessionists) that this body represented the " sub- 
limated, concentrated quintessence of the sovereignty of 
the people !" 

He supposed that Caesar, when he crossed the Rubi- 
con — Augustus, when he overthrew the Roman Repub- 



1861.] Secession in a Nutshell. 75 

lie — Cromwell, when he iDroke up the Long Parliament — 
Bonaparte, when he suppressed the Council of Five 
Hundred at the point of the hayonet — Louis Napoleon, 
when he violated his oath to the republic, and ascended 
the imperial throne — were each the ' ' sublimated, concen- 
trated quintessence of the sovereignty of the people." 

Like the most odious tyrannies of history, it preserved 
the forms of liberty ; but its spirit was crushed out. 
The Convention from which this creature crept into light 
had imitated the odious government of Spain — the only 
one in the world taxing exports — ^by levying an export 
duty upon cotton. He was surprised that the Mont- 
gomery legislators failed to introduce a second Spanish 
feature — the Inquisition. One was as detestable as the 
other. 

Mr. Roselius concluded in a broken voice and with 
great feeling. His heart grew sad at this overthrow of 
free institutions. The Secession leaders had dug the 
grave of republican liberty, and we were called upon 
to assist at the funeral ! He would have no part in any 
such unhallowed business. 

Mr. Rozier, firm to the last, now offered an amend- 
ment : 

That in adopting the Montgomery Constitution, " the sovereign State 
of Louisiana does expressly reserve the right to withdraw from the Union 
created 'by that Constitution, whenever, in the judgment of her citizens, 
her paramount interests may require ity 

This, of course, is Secession in a nutshell — the funda- 
mental principle of the whole movement. But the lead^ 
ers refused to take their own medicine, and tabled the 
proposition without discussion. 

Mr. Bienvenu caused to be entered upon the journal 
his protest against the action of the Convention, de- 
nouncing it as an ordinance which " strips the people of 



76 Despotic Theohies of the Rebels. [isei. 

their sovereignty, reduces them to a state of vassalage, 
and places the destinies of the State, and of the new 
Republic, at the mercy of an uncommissioned and 
irresponsible oligarchy." 

The final vote was then taken, and resulted in one 
hundred and one yeas to seven nays; so "the Confed- 
erate Constitution" is declared ratified by the State of 
Louisiana. 

March 25. 

The Revolutionists can not be charged with any lack 
of frankness. The Delta, lamenting that the Virginia 
Convention will not take that State out of the Union, 
predicts approvingly that " some Cromwellian influence 
will yet disperse the Convention, and place the Old 
Dominion in the Secession ranks." De Bow' s Remew, 
a leading Secession oracle, with high j)retensions to 
philosophy and political economy, says, in its current 
issue : 

" All government begins with usurpation, and is continued by force. 
Nature puts the ruling elements uppermost, and the masses below, and 
subject to those elements. Less than this is not a government. The 
right to govern resides with a very small minority, and the duty to obey 
is inherent with, the great mass of mankind." 

To-day's Crescent discusses the propriety of admitting 
northern States into the Southern Confederacy, "when 
they find out, as they soon will, that they can not get 
along by themselves." It is quite confident that they 
will, ere long, beg admission — ^but predicts for them the 
fate of the Peri, who 

" At the gate 



Of Eden stood, disconsolate, 

And wept to think her recreant race 

Should e'er have lost that glorions place." 



1861.] The Northwest to Join Them. 77 

They must not Ibe permitted to enter. Upon this point 
it is inexorable. It will permit no compunctious visit- 
ings of nature to shake its fell purpose. 

I know all this sounds vastly like a joke ; hut TJie 
Crescent is lugubriously in earnest. In sooth, these 
Rebels are gentlemen of magnificent expectations. ' ' Sir, ' ' 
remarked one of them, a judge, too, while conversing 
with me this very day, "in seven years, the Southern 
Confederacy will be the greatest and richest nation on 
earth. We shall have Cuba, Central America, Mexico, 
and every thing west of the Alleghanies. We are the 
natural market of the northwestern States, and they are 
bound to join us !" 

Think of that, will you ! Imagine Father Giddings, 
Carl Schurz, and Owen Lovejoy — the stanch Republi- 
can States of Wisconsin, Michigan, and even young 
Kansas — whose infant steps to Freedom were over the 
burning plowshare and through the martyr's blood — 
knocking for admission at the door of a Slave Confeder- 
acy ! Is not this the very ecstasy of madness % 

March 26. 

That virtuous and lamented body, the Louisiana 
Convention, after a very turbulent session to-day, has 
adjourned until the 1st of November. 

TTie Crescent is exercised at the presence here of 
"correspondents of northern papers, who indite real 
falsehoods and lies as coolly as they would eat a dinner 
at the Saint Charles." The Crescents rhetoric is a little 
limping ; but its watchfulness and patriotism are above 
all praise. The matter should certainly be attended to. 

We are still enjoying the delights of summer. The 
air is fragrant with daffodils, violets, and roses, the buds 
of the sweet olive and the blossoms of the orange. I 



78 The Swamp — A Trip through Louisiana, [isei. 

have just returned from a ride tlirougli tlie swamp— that 
great cesspool of this metropolis, which generates, with 
the recurrence of summer, the pestilence that walketh in 
darkness. 

It is full of sights strange to northern eyes. The 
stagnant pools of black and green water harmonize with 
the tall, ghastly dead trees, from whose branches de- 
pend long fleeces of gray Spanish moss, with the effect 
of Gothic architecture. It is used in lounges and mat- 
tresses ; but when streaming from the branches, in its 
native state, reminds one of the fantastic term which the 
Choctaw Indians apply to leaves — "tree-hair." 

The weird dead trunks, the moss and the water, 
contrast strikingly with the rich, bright foliage of the 
deciduous trees just glowing into summer life. The 
balmy air makes physical existence delicious, and diffuses 
a luxurious languor through the system. Remove your 
hat, close your eyes, and its strong current strokes your 
brow lovingly and nestles against your cheek like a 
pillow. 



During the last week in March, I went by the New 
Orleans and Gfreat Northern Railway to Jackson, Missis- 
sippi, where the State Convention was in session. 

There is not in Louisiana a hill two hundred feet high. 
Along the railroad, smooth, grassy everglades give place 
to gloomy swamps, dark with the gigantic cypress and 
the varnished leaves of the laurel. 

On the plantations, the white one-story cabins of the 
negroes stood in long double rows, near the ample 
porched and balconied residences of the planters. 
Young sugar-cane, resembling corn two or three weeks 
old, was just peering through the ground. Noble live' 



1861.] Life in the City of Jackson. 79 

oaks waved their drooping Ibonglis above the fields. The 
Pride-of-China tree was very abundant about the dwell- 
ings. It produces a berry on which the birds eagerly 
feed, though its juice is said to intoxicate them. As they 
do not wear revolvers or bowie-knives, it is rather a 
harmless form of dissipation. 

Jackson was not a paradise for a man of my voca- 
tion. Containing four or five thousand people, it was 
one of those delightful villages, calling themselves 
cities, of which the sunny South by no means enjoys a 
monopoly — where everybody knows everybody' s busi- 
ness, and where, upon the advent of a stranger, the 
entire community resolves itself into a Committee of 
the Whole to learn who he is, where he came from, 
and what he wants. 

In a great metropolis, espionage was easily baffled ; 
but in Jackson, an unknown chiel, who looked capable 
of "takin' notes," to say nothing of "prentin' 'em," was 
subject to constant and uncomfortable scrutiny. 

Contrasted with the bustle of New Orleans, existence 
seemed an unbroken seventh-day rest, though a dire 
certainty possessed me, that were my errand suspected, 
e'en Sunday would shine no Sabbath day for me. 

Some months later, a refugee, who had resided there, 
pictured vividly to me the indignant and bewildered 
astonishment of the Jacksonians, when, through a stray 
copy of The Tribune^ they learned that one of its cor- 
respondents had not only walked with them, talked 
with them, and bought with them, but, less scrupulous 
than Shylock, had been ready to eat with them, drink 
with them, and pray with them. 

At this time the Charleston papers and some northern 
journals declared Tlie Tribunes southern correspond- 
ence fictitious, and manufactured at the home office. To 



80 Reporting the Mississippi Convention. [isei. 

remove tliat impression toncliing my own letters, I wrote, 
on certain days, the minutest records of the Convention, 
and of affairs in Jackson, which never found their way 
into the local prints. 

Mournfully metropolitan was Jackson in one re- 
spect — the price of hoard at its leading hotel. The 
accommodations were execrable ; hut I suppose we were 
charged for the unusual luxury of an unctuous Teutonic 
landlord, who hore the formidable patronymic of 
H-i-1-z-h-e-i-m-e-r ! 

" Phoebus, what a mame, 



To fill the speaking-trump of future fame!" 

The Convention was discussing the submission of the 
Montgomery Constitution to the people. The chief 
clerk, with whom I formed a chance acquaintance, 
kindly invited me to a ohair beside his desk, and as I sat 
facing the members, explained to me their capacity, 
views, and antecedents. Whether an undue inquisitive- 
ness seemed to him the distinguishing quality of the New 
Mexican mind, he did not declare ; but once he asked 
me abruptly if I was connected with the press ? With 
the least possible delay, I disabused his mind of that 
peculiarly unjust misap'orehension. 

After a long discussion, the Convention, by a vote of 
fifty-three to thirty-two, refused to submit the Constitu- 
tion to the people, and ratified it in the name of Missis- 
sippi. Seven Union members could not be induced to 
follow the usual practice of making the action unani- 
mous, but to the last steadfastly refused their adherence. 



1861.] The Mississippi State House. 81 



CHAPTER VI. 

——My business in this State 

Made me a looker-on here in Vienna. — Measttee foe Meastjee. 

I 

I whipped me behind the arras, and there heard it agreed upon. 

Much Ado About Nothing. 

Jacksox, Miss., April 1, 1861. 

The Mississippi State House, upon a shaded square in 
front of my window, is a faded, sober edifice, of the style 
in vogue fifty years ago, with the representative hall at 
one end, the senate chamber at the other, an Ionic 
portico in front, and an immense dome upon the top. 
Above this is a miniature dome, like an infinitesimal 
parasol upon a gigantic umbrella. The whole is 
crowned by a small gilded pinnacle, which has relapsed 
from its original perpendicular to an angle of forty -five 
degrees, and looks like a little jockey-cap, worn jantily 
upon the head of a plethoric quaker, to whom it imparts 
a rowdyish air, at variance with his general gravity. 

The first story is of cracked free-stone, the front and 
end walls of stucco, and the rear of brick. As you 
enter the vestibule two musty cannon stand gaping at 
you, and upon one of them you may see, almost any 
day, a little " darkey" sound asleep. Whether he 
guards the gun, or the gun guards him, opens a wide 
field for conjecture. 

Ascending a spiral stairway, and passing along the 
balustrade which surrounds the open space under the 
dome, you turn to the left, through a narrow passage 
into the representative hall. Here is the Mississippi 
Convention. 

At the north end of the apartment sits the president, 



82 View of the Representative Hall. [issi. 

upon a high platform occupying a recess in the wall, 
with two Ionic columns upon each side of him. Before 
him is a little, old-fashioned mahogany pulpit, conceal- 
ing all but his head and shoulders from the vulgar gaze. 
In front of this, and three or four feet lower, at a long 
wooden desk, sit two clerks, one smoking a cigar. 

Before them, and still lower, at a shorter desk, an 
unhappy Celtic reporter, with dark shaggy hair and eye- 
brows, is taking down the speech of the honorable mem- 
ber from something or other county. In front of his 
desk, standing rheumatically upon the floor, is a little 
table, which looks as if called into existence by a 
drunken carpenter on a dark night, from the relics of a 
superannuated dry-goods box. 

Upon one of the columns at the president's right, 
hangs a faded portrait of George Poindexter, once a 
senator from this State. Further to the right is an open 
fire-place, upon whose mantel stand a framed copy of 
the Declaration of Independence, now sadly faded and 
blurred, a lithographic view of the Medical College 
of Louisiana, and a pitcher and glass. On the hearth is 
a pair of ancient andirons, upon which a genial wood 
fire is burning. 

The hypocritical plastering which coated the fire- 
place has peeled off, leaving bare the honest, worn faces 
of the original bricks. Some peculiar non-adhesive in- 
fluence must affect plastering in Jackson. In whole 
rooms of the hotel it has seceded from the lath. Judge 
Gholson says that once, in the old State House, a few 
hundred yards distant, when Sargeant S. Prentiss was 
making a speech, he saw "an acre or two" of the 
plastering fall upon his head, and quite overwhelm him 
for the time. The Judge is what Count Fosco would 
call the Man of Brains ; he is deemed the ablest member 



1861.] General Am of Dilapidation. 83 

of tlie Convention. He was a colleague in Congress of 
tlie lamented Prentiss, whom he pronounces tlie most 
T3rilliant orator that ever addressed a Mississippi au- 
dience. 

On the left of the president is another fire-place, also 
with a sadly l)lurred copy of the great Declaration stand- 
ing upon its mantel. The members' desks, in rows like 
the curved line of the letter D, are of plain wood, paint- 
ed black. Their chairs are great, square, faded mahoga- 
ny frames, stuffed and covered with haircloth. As you 
stand beside the clerk' s desk, facing them, you see be- 
hind the farthest row a semi-circle of ten pillars, and 
beyond them a narrow, crescent shaped lobby. Half- 
way up the pillars is a little gallery, inhabited just now 
by two ladies in faded mourning. 

In the middle of the hall, a tarnished brass chan- 
delier, with pendants of glass, is suspended from the 
ceiling by a rod festooned with cobwebs. Tliis medieval 
relic is purely ornamental, for the room is lighted with 
gas. The walls are high, pierced with small windows, 
whose faded blue curtains, flowered and bordered with 
white, are suspended from a triple bar of gilded Indian 
arrows. 

Chairs of cane, rush, wood and leather seats — chairs 
with backs, and chairs without backs, are scattered 
through the hall and lobby, in pleasing illustration of 
that variety which is the spice of life. The walls are 
faded, cracked, and dingy, pervaded by the general air 
of mustiness, and going to "the demnition bow-wows" 
prevalent about the building. 

The members are in all sorts of social democratic posi- 
tions. In the open spaces about the clerk' s desk and fire- 
places, some sit with chairs tilted against the wall, some 
upon stools, and three slowly vibrate to and fro in pre- 



84 A Free and Easy Convention. [isgi. 

Raphaelite rocking-cliairs. These portions of the hall 
present qnite the appearance of a Kentucky bar-room on 
a winter evening. 

Tvro or three members are eating apples, three or 
fonr smoking cigars, and a dozen inspect their feet, rest- 
ing upon the desks before them. Contemplating the 
spectacle yesterday, I found myself involuntarily repeat- 
ing the couplet of an old temperance ditty : 

"The rumseller sat by Ms bar-room fire, 
With Ms feet as high as bis bead, and bigber," 

and a moment after I was strongly tempted to ^give the 
prolonged, stentorian shout of " B-o-o-t-s !" familiar to 
ears theatrical. Pardon the irreverence, O decorous 
Tribune ! for there is such a woful dearth of amusement 
in this solemn, funereal city, that one waxes desperate. 
To complete my inventory, many members are reading 
this morning's Mississippian, or TTie New Orleans 
Picayune or Delta, and the rest listen to the one who 
is addressing the Chair. 

Tliey impress you by their pastoral aspect — the ab- 
sence of urban costumes and postures. Their general 
bucolic appearance would assure you, if you did not 
know it before, that there are not many large cities in the 
State of Mississippi. Your next impression is one of 
wonder at their immense size and stature. Of them the 
future historian may well say: "There were giants in 
those days." 

All around you are broad-shouldered, herculean- 
framed, well-proportioned men, who look as if a laugh 
from them would bring this crazy old capitol down 
about their ears, and a sneeze, shake the great globe 
itself. The largest of these Mississippi Anakim is a 
gigantic planter, clothed throughout in blue homespun. 



1861.] Southern Orators — Anglo-African Dialect. 85 

You miglit select a dozen out of the ninety-nine dele- 
gates, each of whom could personate the Original Scotch 
Giant in a traveling exhibition. They have large, fine 
heads, and a profusion of straight brown hair, though 
here and there is a crown smooth, "bald, and shining. 
Taken for all in all, they are fine specimens of physical 
development, with frank, genial, jovial faces. 

The speaking is generally good, and commands re- 
spectful attention. There is little badinage or satire, a 
good deal of directness and coming right to the point, 
qualified by the strong southern proclivity for ad- 
jectives. The pungent French proverb, that the ad- 
jective is the most deadly enemy of the substantive, has 
never journeyed south of Mason & Dixon's line. 

The members, like all deliberative bodies in this lati- 
tude, are mutual admirationists. Every speaker has the 
most profound respect for the honest motives, the pure 
patriotism, the transcendent abilities of the honorable 
gentleman upon the other side. It excites his regret and 
self-distrust to difffer from such an array of learning and 
eloquence ; and nothing could impel him to but a 
sense of imperious duty. 

He speaks fluently, and with grammatical correctness, 
but in the Anglo- African dialect. His violent denuncia- 
tions of the Black Republicans are as nothing to the 
gross indignities which he offers to the letter r. His 
i^mo^s,^^ '■'-'befd' s^^'' and '•'• lied! s*^ convey reminiscences 
of the negress who nursed him in infancy, and the little 
" pickaninnies" with whom he played in boyhood. 

The custom of stump-speaking, universal through the 
South and West, is a capital factory for converting the 
raw material into orators. Of course there are strong 
exceptions. This very morning we had an address from 
one member — Mr. D. B. Moore, of Tuppah county — 



86 A Speech worth Preservation. [isei. 

wliicli is worthy of more particular notice. I wish I 
could give you a literal report. Pickwick would l)e 
solemn in comparison. 

Mr. Moore conceives himself an orator, as Brutus 
was ; l)ut in attempting to cover the whole subject (the 
Montgomery Constitution), he spread himself out " very 
thin." I will "hack" him in a given time to quote 
more Scripture, incorrectly, irreverently, and irrelevant- 
ly, than any other man on the IS'orth American con- 
tinent. 

His "like we" was peculiarly refreshing, and his 
history and classics had a strong flavor of originality. 
He quoted Patrick Henry, '■''Let Csesar have his Bru- 
tus ;" piled " Pelion upon PelionP'' and made Sampson 
kill Goliah ! ! He thought suhmitting the Secession 
ordinance to the people in Texas had produced an ex- 
cellent effect. Previous to it, the New YorTz Tribune 
said: "Secession is hut a scheme of demagogues — a 
move on the political chess-hoard — the people oppose 
it." But afterward it began to ask: "How is this? 
What does it all mean ? Tlie people seem to have a hand 
in it, and to be in earnest, too." The tone of Mr. 
Seward also changed radically, he observed, after that 
election. 

Mr. Moore spoke an hour and a half, and the other 
members, though hstening courteously, betrayed a lurk- 
ing suspicion that he was a bore. In person he resem- 
bles Henry S. Lane, the zealous United States Senator- 
elect from Indiana. The sergeant-at-arms, who, in a gray 
coat, and without a neckerchief, walks to and fro, with 
hands in his pockets, looks like the unlovely James H. 
Lane, Senator-expectant from Kansas, 

Shall I give you a little familiar conversation of the 
members, as they smoke their post-prandial cigars in the 



1861.] Familiar Conversation of Members. 87 

hall, waiting for the Convention to he called to order ? 
Every mother' s son of them has a title. 

Judge. — Toombs is a great blusterer. When speak- 
ing, he seems determined to force, to drive yon into 
agreeing with him. Howell Cobb is another blusterer, 
much like him, but immensely fond of good dinners. 
Aleck Stephens is very different. When he speaks, you 
feel that he desires to carry you with him only by the 
power of reason and argument. 

Colonel.— I knew him when he used to be a mail- 
carrier in Georgia. He was a poor orphan boy, but a 
charitable society of ladies educated him. He is a very 
small man, with a hand no wider than my three fingers, 
and as transparent as any lady' s who has been sick for a 
year. He always looked like an invalid. If you were 
to cut his head off, I don't believe he would bleed a 
pint.* 

Ma JOE. — Do you know what frightened Abe Lin- 
coln out of Baltimore ? Somebody told him that Aleck 
Stephens was lying in wait for him on a street corner, 
with a six-pounder strapped to his back. Wlien he 
heard that, he sloped. [Loud laughter from the group.] 

Judge. — Well, Lincoln has been abused immensely 
about his flight through Baltimore ; but I believe the 
man acted from good motives. He knew that his parti- 
sans there meant to make a demonstration when he ar- 
rived, and that they were very obnoxious to the people ; 
he had good reason to believe that it would produce 

*He never weighed over ninety-six pounds, and, to see his attenuated 
figure hent over his desk, the shoulders contracted, and the shape of his 
slender limbs visible through his garments, a stranger would select him 
as the John Eandolph of our time. He has the appearance of having 
Undergone great bodily anguish. — Newspaper Biography of Alexander 
S. Stephens. 



88 New Orleans Again — Revee-vving Troops, [isgi. 

troTilDle, and perhaps bloodslied ; so lie went tkrougli se- 
cretly, to avoid it. 

New Orleans, April 5, 1861. 

The Second Louisiana Zouaves were reviewed on 
Lafayette Square last evening, before leaving for 
Pensacola. They are bojdsh-looking, and handle their 
muskets as if a little afraid of them, but seem to be the 
raw material of good soldiers. They are luridly gro- 
tesque, in closely-fitting, blue-tasseled, red fez caps, blue 
flannel jackets and frocks, faced with red, baggy red 
breeches, like galvanized corn-sacks, and gutta-percha 
greaves about their ankles. 

A'pril 6. 

All the Secession leaders except Senator Benjamin 
declare there will be no war. He asserts that war is sure 
to come ; and in a recent speech characterized it as "by 
no means an unmixed evil." 

The Fire-Eaters are intensely bitter upon the border 
States for refusing to plunge into the whirlpool of Seces- 
sion. They are bent on persuading or driving all the 
slave States into their ranks. Otherwise they fear — ^in- 
deed, predict frankly — that the border will gradually 
become Abolitionized, and extend free territory to the 
Gulf itself. They are quite willing to devote Kentucky 
and Yirginia to the devastation of civil war, or the 
embarrassment of a contiguous hostile republic, wliich 
would not return their run-away negroes."^ But they 

* By the last census report, tlie whole number of escaping fugitives 
in the United States, in the year 1860, was eight hundred and three, 
being a trifle over one-fiftieth of one per cent, upon the whole number of 
slaves. Of these, it is probable that the greater part fled to places of 
refuge in the South, the Dismal Swamp, everglades of Florida, south- 
ern mountain regions, and the northern States of Mexico. — Everetfi 
New YorTc Oration^ July 4, 1861. 



1861.] Three Obnoxious Northerners. 89 

will move lieayen and earth to save themselves from 
any sucli possible contingency. 

April 8. 

The recent warlike movements of the National Gov- 
ernment cause excitement and surprise. At last, the 
people hegin to suspect that they have invoked grim- 
visaged war. The newspapers descant upon the injury 
to commerce and industry. Why did they not think of 
all this before ? 

It is vouchsafed to few mortals to learn, before death, 
exactly what their associates think of them ; but your 
correspondent is among the favored few. The other 
evening, I was sitting with a Secession acquaintance, in 
the great exchange of the St. Charles Hotel, when con- 
versation turned upon the southern habit of lynching 
people who do not happen to agree with the majority. 
He presumed enough upon my ignorance to insist that 
any moderate, gentlemanly Republican might come here 
with impunity. 

"But," he added, " there are three men whose safety 
I would not guarantee." 

"Who are they?" 

"Governor Dennison, of Ohio, is one. Since he re- 
fused to return that fugitive slave to Kentucky, he 
would hardly be permitted to stay in New Orleans ; at 
all events, I should oppose it. Then there is Andy 
Johnson. He ought to be shot, or hanged, wherever 
found. But for him, Kentucky and Tennessee would 
have been with us long ago. He could not remain here 
unharmed for a single hour." 

" And the third ?" 

"Some infernal scoundrel, who is writing abusive 
letters about us to The New York Tribune.''^ 

" Is it possible ?" 



90 Attack on Sumter — Rebel Boasting. [isei. 

"Yes, sir, and lie lias l)een at it for more than a 
month." 

" Can't yon find him out ?" 

" Some think it is a Kentnckian, who pretends to he 
engaged in cattle-trading', hnt only makes that a subter- 
fuge. I snspect, however, that it is an editor of TTie 
Picayune^ which is a Yankee concern through and 
through. If he is caught, I don't think he will write 
many more letters." 

I ventured a few words in palliation of the Governor 
and the Senator, hut quite agreed that this audacious 
scribbler ought to be suppressed. 

A'pril 12. 

Telegraphic intelligence to-day of the attack upon 
Fort Sumter causes intense excitement. Tlie Delta of- 
fice is besieged by a crowd hungry for news. The 
universal expectation of the easy capture of the fort is 
not stronger than the belief that it will be followed by an 
immediate and successful movement against the city of 
Washington. The politicians and newspapers have per- 
suaded the masses that the Yankees (a phrase which they 
no longer apply distinctively to New Englanders, but 
to every person born in the North) mean to subjugate 
them, but are arrant cowards, who may easily be fright- 
ened away. Leading men seldom express this opinion ; 
yet The Crescent, giving the report that eight thousand 
Massachusetts troops have been called into the field, 
adds, that if they would come down to Pensacola, eight- 
een hundred Confederates would easily " whip them 
out." 

" God help them if the tempest swings 
The pine against the palm!" 



1861.] Abolition Tendencies of Kentuckians, 91 

I 



CHAPTER yil. 



-Thou sure and firm-set earth. 



Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear 
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout. — Macbeth. 

Theee were two of my acquaintances (one very prom- 
inent in the Secession movement) with, whom, while they 
had no suspicion of my real lousiness, I could converse 
with a little frankness. One of them desired war, on the 
ground that it would unite the inhabitants of all the 
border slave States, and overpower the Union sentiment 
there. 

"ifeut," I asked, "will not war also unite the people 
of the North ?" 

"I think not. We have a great many earnest and 
bold friends there." 

"True; but do you suppose they could stand for a 
single week against the popular feeling which war 
would arouse?" 

"Perhaps you are right," he replied, thoughtfully, 
"but it never occurred to me before." 

My other friend also talked with great frankness : 

" We can get along very well with the New England 
Yankees who are permanently settled here. They make 
the strongest Secessionists we have ; but the Kentuckians 
give us a great deal o-f trouble. They were born and 
raised where Slavery is unprofitable. They have strong 
proclivities toward Abolitionism. The constituents of 
Rozier and Roselius, who fought us so persistently in 
the Convention, are nearly all Kentuckians. 



92 Two Chief Causes of Secession, [isei. 

" Slavery is our leading interest. Right or wrong, 
we have it and we must have it. Cotton, rice, and sugar 
cannot he raised without it. Being a necessity, we do 
not mean to allow its discussion. Every thing which 
clashes with it, or tends to weaken it, must go under. 
Our large Gferman population is hostile to it. About all 
these Dutchmen would be not only Unionists, but Black 
Republicans, if they dared." 

Perhaps it is the invariable law of revolutions that, 
even while the revolters are in a numerical minori- 
ty, they are able to carry the majority with them. 
It is certain that, before Sumter was fired on, a majority 
in every State, except South Carolina, was opposed to 
Secession. The constant predictions of the Rebel leaders 
that there would be no war, and the assertions of promi- 
nent ISTew York journals, that any attempt at coercion on 
the part of the Government would be met with armed 
and bloody resistance in every northern city and State, 
were the two chief causes of the apparent unanimity of 
the South. 

The masses had a vague but very earnest belief that 
the North, in some incomprehensible manner, had done 
them deadly wrong. Cassio-like, they remembered "a 
mass of things, but nothing distinctly ; a quarrel, but 
nothing wherefore." The leaders were sometimes more 
specific. 

*'The South," said a pungent writer, "has endured 
a great many wrongs ; but the most intolerable of all the 
grievances ever thrust upon her was the Census Report 
of 1860!" There was a great deal of truth in this 
remark. One day I asked my IS'ew Orleans friend : 

"Why have you raised all this tempest about Mr. 
Lincoln' s election V ' 

" Don't deceive yourself," he answered. " Mr. Idn- 



1861.] Fundamental Grievance of the Rebels. 93 

coin's election had nothing to do with it, "beyond 
enabling ns to rouse our people. Had Douglas been 
chosen, we should have broken up the Union just as 
quickly. Had Bell triumphed, it would have been all 
the same. Even if Breckinridge had been elected, we 
would have seceded before the close of his term. 
There is an essential incompatibility between the two 
sections. The South stands still, lohile the North has 
grown rich and powerful, and expanded from ocean to 
ocean.'' "* 

This was the fundamental grievance. Very liberal in 
his general views, he had not apparently the faintest 
suspicion that Slavery was responsible for the decadence 
of the South, or that Freedom impelled the gigantic 
strides of the North. 

Yet his theory of the Rebellion was doubtless 
correct. It arose from no man, or party, or political 
event, but from the inherent quarrel between two 
adverse systems, which the fullness of time had ripened 
into open warfare. His " essential incompatibility" was 
only another name for Mr. Seward's "Irrepressible Con- 
flict" between two principles. They have since re- 
corded, in letters of blood, not^ merely their incompati- 
bility, but their absolute, aggressive, eternal antagonism. 

During the second week in April, I began to find 
myself the object of unpleasant, not to say impertinent, 
curiosity. So many questions were asked, so many 
pointed and significant remarks made in my presence, as 
to render it certain that I was regarded with peculiar sus- 
picion. 

At first I was at a loss to surmise its origin. But one 
day I encountered an old acquaintance in the form of a 
son of Abraham, who had frequently heard me, in public 
addresses in Kansas, utter sentiments not absolutely pro- 



94 Sudden Departure from New Orleans. [issi 

slavery ; wlio knew that I once held a modest commission 
in the Free State army, and that I was a whilom corre- 
spondent of The Tribune. 

He was hy no means an Israelite without guile, for he 
had heen chased out of the Pike' s Peak region during the 
previous summer, for rohhing one of my friends who had 
nursed him in sickness. Concluding that he might 
play the informer, I made an engagement with him for 
the next afternoon, and, before the time arrived, shook 
from my feet the dust of New Orleans. Designing to 
make a detour to Fort Pickens on my way, I procured a 
ticket for Washington.. The sea was the safer route, hut 
I was curious to take a final look at the interior. 

On Friday evening, April 12th, I left the Crescent City. 
In five minutes our train plunged into the great swamp 
which environs the commercial metropolis of the South- 
west. Deep, broad ditches are cut for draining, and you 
sometimes see an alligator, five or six feet long, and 
as large as the body of a man, lying lazily upon the edge 
of the green water. 

The marshy ground is mottled with gorgeous flowers, 
and the palmetto is very abundant. It does not here 
attain to the dignity of a tree, seldom growing more than 
four feet high. Its flag, sword-shaped leaves branch out 
in flat semicircular clusters, resembling the fan palm. 
Its tough bulbous root was formerly cut into fine frag- 
ments by the Indians, then bruised to a pulp and thrown 
into the lake. It produced temporary blindness among 
the fishes, which brought them to the surface, where they 
were easily caught by hand. 

With rare fitness stands the palmetto as the device of 
South Carolina. Indeed, it is an excellent emblem of 
Slavery itself ; for, neither beautiful, edible, nor useful, it 
blinds the short-sighted fish coming under its influence. 



1861.] The War Spirit in Mobile. 95 

To tliem it is 

" The insane root, 



"WMcli takes the reason prisoner." 

A ride of four miles brouglit us to Lake Pontcliartrain, 
stretching away in the fading sunlight. Over the broad 
expanse of swelling water, delicate, foamy wliite caps 
were cresting the waves. 

We were transferred to the propeller Alabama, and, 
when I woke the next morning, were lying at Mobile. 
With a population of thirty thousand, the city contains 
many pleasant residences, embowered in shade-trees, and 
surrounded by generous grounds. It is rendered attrac- 
tive by its tall pines, live oak, and Pride-of- China trees. 
The last were now decked in a profusion of bluish- 
white blossoms. 

The war spirit ran high. Hand-bills, headed "Sol- 
diers wanted," and "Ho! for volunteers," met the 
eye at every corner ; uniforms and arms abounded, and 
the voice of the bugle was heard in the streets. All 
northern vessels were clearing on account of the impend- 
ing crisis, though some were not more than half loaded. 

Mobile was very radical. One of the daily papers 
urged the imposition of a tax of one dollar per copy upon 
every northern newspaper or magazine brought into the 
Confederacy ! 

The leading hotel was crowded with guests, including 
many soldiers en route for Bragg' s army. It was my 
own design to leave for Pensacola that evening, and look 
at the possible scene of early hostilities. A Secession 
friend in New Orleans had given me a personal letter to 
General Bragg, introducing me as a gentleman of leisure, 
who would be glad to make a few sketches of proper 
objects of interest about his camps, for one of the JSTew 
York illustrated papers. It added that he had known 



96 Suspicions Aroused — an Awkward Encounter, [isei. 

me all liis life, and vouched completely for my " sound- 
ness." 

But a little incident changed my determination. Among 
my fellow-passengers from New Orleans were three young 
officers of the Confederate army, also bound for Fort 
Pickens. Wliile on the steamer, I did not observe that I 
was an object of their special attention ; but just after 
breakfast this morning, as I was going up to my room, in 
the fourth story of the Battle House, I encountered them 
also ascending the broad stairs. The moment they saw 
me, they dropped the subject upon which they were con- 
versing, and one, with significant glances, burst into a 
most violent invective against Tlie Tribune^ denouncing 
it as the vilest journal in America, except Parson Brown- 
low' s Knoxmlle Whig ! pronouncing every man con- 
nected with it a thief and scoundrel, and asserting that if 
any^of its correspondents could be caught here, they 
would be hung upon the nearest tree. 

This philippic was so evidently inspired by my pres-, 
ence, and the eyes of the whole group glared with a spec- 
ulation so unpleasant, that I felt myself an unhappy 
Romeo, "too early seen unknown and known too late." 
I had learned by experience that the best protection for a 
suspected man was to go everywhere, as if he had a right 
to go ; to brave scrutiny ; to return stare for stare and 
question for question. 

So, during this tirade, which lasted while, side by side, 
we leisurely climbed two staircases, I strove to main- 
tain an exterior of serene and wooden unconsciousness. 
When the speaker had exhausted his vocabulary of hard 
words, I drew a fresh cigar from my pocket, and said to 
him, "Please to give me a light, sir." With a puzzled 
air he took his cigar from his mouth, knocked off the 
ashes with his forefinger, handed it to me, and stood re- 



1861.] " Mass'r, Fort Sumter's Gone up!" 97 

garding me a little curiously, wliile, looking Mm full in 
the face, I slowly ignited my own Havana, returned his, 
and thanked him. 

They turned away apparently convinced that their 
zeal had outrun their discretion. The look of blank 
disappointment and perplexity upon the faces of those 
young officers as they disappeared in the passage will be, 
to me, a joy forever. 

Pondering in my room upon fresh intelligence of the 
arrest of suspicious persons in General Bragg' s camp, 
and upon this little experience, I changed my plan. As 
Toodles, in the farce, thinks he "won't smoke," so I 
decided not to go to Pensacola ; but ordered a carriage, 
and drove down to the mail-boat St. Charles, which was 
to leave for Montgomery that evening. 

I fully expected during the afternoon to entertain a 
vigilance committee, the police, or some military officials 
who would invite me to look at Secession through prison 
bars. It was not an inviting prospect ; yet there was 
nothing to do but to wait. 

The weather was dreamy and delicious. My state-room 
looked out upon the shining river, and the rich olive green 
of the grassy shore. Upon the dull, opaque water of a 
broad bayou beyond, little snowy sails flashed, and a 
steamer, with tall black chimneys, left a white, foamy 
track in the waters, and long clouds of brown smoke 
against the sky. 

At three o'clock in the afternoon, while I was lying in 
my state-room, looking out drowsily upon this picture, a 
cabin-boy presented his sooty face at the door and said, 
"Mass'r, Fort Sumter's gone up !" 

The intelligence had just arrived by telegraph. The 
first battle of the Great War was over, and seventy-two 
men, after a bombardment of two days, were captured 



98 Bells Ringing and Cannons Booming. [isei. 

"by twelve thousand ! In a moment cliurcli and steam- 
boat bells rang out their notes of triumph, and cannon 
"belched forth their deep-mouthed exultation. A public 
meeting was extemporized in the street, and enthusiastic 
speeches were made. Mindful of my morning experi- 
ence, I did not leave the boat, but tried to read the mo- 
mentous Futi;ire. I thought I could see, in its early 
pages, the death-warrant of Slavery ; but all else was 
inscrutable. 

There was a steam calliope attached to the "St. 
Charles." That evening, when the last bell had rung, 
and the last cable was taken in, she left the Mobile land- 
ing, and plowed slowly up the river to the shrill notes of 
"Dixie's Land. "^* 

The Alabama is the "most monotonously beautiful of 
rivers." In the evening twilight, its sinuous sweep af- 
forded a fine view of both shores, timbered down to the 
water' s edge. Dense foliage, decked in the blended and 
intermingled hues of summer, gave them the appearance 
of two soft, smooth cushions of variegated velvet. 

After dark, we met the descending mail-boat. Our 
calliope saluted her with lively music, and the passen- 
gers assembled on the guards, greeting each other with 
the usual huzzas and waving of hats and handkerchiefs. 

* Dixie's Land is a synonym for heaven. It appears that there was 
once a good planter named Dixie, who died at some period unknown, to 
the intense grief of his animated property. They found expression for 
their sorrow in song, and consoled themselves by clamoring in verse for 
their removal to the land to which Dixie had departed, and where 
probably the renewed spirit would be greatly surprised to find himself in 
tlieir company. Whether they were ill treated after he died, and thus 
had reason to deplore his removal, or merely desired heaven in the 
abstract, nothing known enables me to assert. But Dixie's Land is now 
generally taken to be the Seceded States, Avhere Mr. Dixie certainly is 
not at the present writing. — EusseWs Diarij in America. 



1861.] A Terpsichorean Young Negro. 99 

On Sunday morning, tlie inevitable calliope awoke ns 
— this time, with sacred music. At many river landings 
there was only a single well-shaded farm-house on the 
bank, with ladies sitting upon the piazzas, and white and 
negro children playing under the magnificent live-oaks. 
At others, a solitary warehouse stood upon the high, 
perpendicular bluff, with an inclined-plane railway for 
the conveyance of freight to the water. At some points 
the country was open, and a great cotton-field extended 
to the river-bank, with a weather-beaten cotton-press in 
the midst of it, like an old northern cider-mill. 

Planters, returning from New Orleans and Mobile, 
were met at the landings by their negroes. The slaves 
appeared glad to see them, and were greeted with hearty 
hand-shakings. At one landing the calliope struck up a 
lively strain, and a young darkey on the bank, with the 
Terpsichorean proclivity of his race, began to dance as if 
for dear life, throwing his arms and legs in ludicrous 
and extravagant fashion. His master attempted to cuff 
his ears, but the little fellow ducked his head and 
danced away, to the great merriment of the lookers-on. 
The negro nurses on the boat fondled and kissed the lit- 
tle white children in their charge most ardently. 

I saw no instance of unkind treatment to slaves ; but 
a young planter on board mentioned to me, as a note- 
worthy circumstance, that he had not permitted a negro 
to be struck upon his plantation for a year. 

A Texian on board the boat was very bitter against 
Gfovernor Houston, and, with the usual extreme lan- 
guage of the Rebels, declared he would be hanged if he 
persisted in opposing the Disunionists. An old citizen of 
Louisiana, too, became so indignant at me for remarking \ 
I had always supposed Douglas to sympathize with the 
South, that I made haste to qualify the assertion. 



100 Leading Characteristics of Southerners, [isei. 

Our passengers were excellent specimens of the bet- 
ter class of southerners. Aside from his negrophobia, 
the southern gentleman is an agreeable companion. He 
is genial, frank, cordial, profoundly deferential to wo- 
men, and carries his heart in his hand. His social 
qualities are his weak point. To a northerner, passing 
through his country during these disjointed times, I 
would have said : 

"Your best protection is to be 'hail fellow, well 
met;' spend money freely, tell good stories, be liberal 
of your private brandy-flask, and your after-dinner 
cigars. If you do this, and your manners are, in his 
thinking, gentlemanly, he can by no means imagine you 
a Yankee in the offensive sense. He pictures all Yan- 
kees as puritanic, rigid, fanatical, and talking through 
the nose. ' What the world wants,' says George Wil- 
liam Curtis, ' is not honesty, but acquiescence.' That is 
profoundly true here. Acquiesce gracefully, not intem- 
perately, in the prevailing sentiment. Don't hail from 
the State of Massachusetts ; don't 'guess,' or use other 
northern provincialisms ; don't make yourself conspicu- 
ous—and, if you know human nature, you may pass 
without serious trouble." 

Our southerner has little humanity — ^he feels little 
sympathy for a man, as a man — as a mere human 
being — but he has abundant warmth toward his own 
social class. lS.Q>i a very high specimen himself, he yet 
lays infinite stress upon being "a gentleman." If you 
have the misfortune to be poor, and without credentials, 
but possess the manners of education and good society, 
he will give you kinder reception than you are likely 
to obtain in the bustling, restless, crowded North. 

He affects long hair, dresses in unqualified black, 
and wears kid gloves continually. He pronounces 



1861.] Southern Provincialisms. 101 

iron "z'-roii" (two syllables), and barrel "barl." He 
calls car "kyali" (one syllable), cigar "5d-ghali," and 
negro "mp'-ro" — never negro, and very rarely "nig- 
ger." The latter, by the way, was a pet word with Sen- 
ator Douglas. Once, while his star was in the ascend- 
ant, some one asked Mr. Seward : 

" Will Judge Douglas ever be President ?" 

"No, sir," replied the New York senator. " No man 
will ever be President of the United States who spells 
negro with two g's !" 

These southern provincialisms are sometimes a little 
startling. Conversing with a young man in the senior 
class of a Mississippi college, I remarked that men were 
seldom found in any circle who had not some sympathy 
or affinity with it, to stimulate them to seek it. "Yes," 
he replied, ' ' something to aig them on P ' 

The forests along the river were beautiful with the 
brilliant green live-oak festooned with mistletoe, the 
dark pine, the dense cane, the spring glory of the cotton- 
wood and maple, the drooping delicate leaves of the 
willow, the white- stemmed sycamore with its creamy 
foliage, and the great snowy blossoms of the dog-wood. 

With a calliope, familiarity breeds contempt. Ours 
became an intolerable nuisance, and induced frequent 
discussions about bribing the player to stop it. He was 
apparently animated by the spirit of the Parisian who 
set a hand-organ to running by clockwork in his room, 
locked the apartment, went to the country for a month, 
and, when he returned, found that two obnoxious neigh- 
bors, whom he wished to drive away, had blown out 
their brains in utter despair. 

While I was pleasantly engaged in a whist-party in 
the cabin, this fragment of a conversation between two 
bystanders reached my ears : 



102 Confederate Capitol at Montgomery. [isei 

"A spy?" 

"Yes, a spy from tlie ]S"ortli, looking alDOiit to olDtaiu 
iaformation for old Lincoln ; and they arrested one yes^ 
terday, too." 

This was a pleasing theme of reflection for the timi^ 
and contemplative mind. A passenger explained the 
matter, by informing me that, at one of the landings 
where we stopped, telegraphic intelligence was received 
of the arrest of two spies at Montgomery. The popular 
impression seemed to be, that about one person in ten 
was engaged in that not-very-fascinating avocation ! 

In Indian dialect, Alabama signifies, "Here we rest ;" 
but, for me, it had an exactly opposite meaning. We 
awoke one morning to find our boat lying at Mont- 
gomery. Reacliing the hotel too early for breakfast, I 
strolled with a traveler from Philadelphia, a pretended 
Secessionist, to the State House, which was at present 
also the Capitol of the Confederacy. 

Standing, like the Capitol in Washington, at the head 
of a broad thoroughfare, it overlooks a pleasant city 
of eight thousand people. The building is of stuc«o, 
and bears that melancholy suggestion of better days 
which seems inseparable from the Peculiar Institution. 

The senate chamber is a small, dingy apartment, on 
whose dirty walls hang portraits of Clay, Calhoun, and 
two or three Alabama politicians. The desks and chairs 
were covered with antiquated public documents, and 
the other debris of legislative halls. While returning to 
the hotel, we heard from a street loafer a terse descrip- 
tion of some model slave : 

" He is just the best nigger in this town. He knows 
enough to work well, and he knows nothing else." 

We were also informed that the Virginia Convention 
had passed a Secession ordinance.; 



1861.] "Copperas Breeches" vs. "Black Breeches." 103 

" This is capital news ; is it not?" said my Philadel- 
phia companion, with well-assumed glee. 

For several days, in spite of his violent assertions, I 
had doubted his sincerity. This was the first time he 
broached the subject when no one else was present. I 
looked steadily in his eye, and inquired ; 

" Do you think so ?" 

His half-quizzical expression was a satisfactory 
answer, even without the reply : 

" I want to get home to Philadelphia without being 
detained on the way." 

In the hotel ofiice, two well-dressed southerners were 
discussing the omnipresent topic. One of them said : 

" We shall have no war." 

"Yes, we shall," replied the other. "The Yankees 
are going to fight for a while ; but it will make no dif- 
ference to us. We have got copperas breeches enough 
to carry this war through. ISTone of the black breeches 
will have to shoulder muskets !" 

The reader should understand that the clothing of 
the working whites was colored with a dye in which 
copperas was the chief ingredient ; while, of course, the 
upper, slaveholding classes, wore ' ' customary suits of 
solemn black." This was a very pregnant sentence, con- 
veying in a few words the belief of those Rebels who 
instigated and impelled the war. 

The morning newspapers, at our breakfast-table, de- 
tailed two interesting facts. First, that "Jasper,"* the 

* This gentleman went to Charleston openly for The Times, and con- 
stantly insisted that a candid and truthful correspondent of any northern 
paper could travel through the South without serious difficulty. He 
was daily declaring that the devil was not so black as he is painted, 
denying charges brought against Oharlestonians by the northern press, 
and sometimes evidently straining a point in his own convictions to 



104 A Correspondent in Durance Vile. [isei. 

Charleston correspondent of The New York Times, had 
"been seized and imprisoned in the Palmetto City. Sec- 
ond, that Gen. Bragg had arrested in his camp, and 
sent Tinder guard to Montgomery, " as a prisoner of 
war," the correspondent of TJie Pensacola (Fla.) Oh- 
seroer. This journalist was an enthusiastic Secessionist, 
hut had heen guilty of some indiscretion in puhlishing 
facts toucliing the strength and designs of the Rehel 
arm}^ His signature was "Nemo;" and he now hade 
fair to he No One, indeed, for some time to come. 

say a kind -i;\-ord for them. But, during the storming of Sumter, he 
was suddenly arrested, robbed, and imprisoned in a filthy cell for sev- 
eral days. He was at last permitted to go ; hut the mob had become 
excited against him, and with difficulty he escaped with his life. No 
other correspondent was subjected to such gross indignities. " Jasper" 
reached Washington, having obtained a good deal of new and vduahle 
information about South Carolina character. 



18G1.] Effect of Capturing Fort Sumter. 105 



CHAPTER VIII. 

I reckon this always, that a man is never undone until he be hanged. — 

Two Gkntlbmen of Verona. 

I NOW iDegan to entertain sentiments of profound 
gratitude toward the young officer, at Mobile, who kept 
me from going to Fort Pickens. Rejecting the tempting 
request of my Philadelphia companion to remain one 
day in Montgomery, that he might introduce me to 
Jefferson Davis, I continued my "Journey Due North.." 

When we reached the cars, my haggage was missing. 
The omnibus agent, who was originally a New Yorker, 
and probably thought it precarious for a man desiring to 
reach. Washington to be detained, even a few hours, 
kindly induced the conductor to detain the train for five 
minutes while we drove back to the Exchange Hotel and 
found the missing valise. The event proved that delay 
would have been embarrassing, if not perilous. 

A Georgian on the car-seat with me, while very care- 
ful not to let others overhear his remarks, freely avowed 
Union sentiments, and asserted that they were predom- 
inant among his neighbors. I longed to respond ear- 
nestly and sincerely, but there was the possibility of a 
trap, and I merely acquiesced. 

The country was intoxicated by the capture of Sum- 
ter. A newspaper on the train, several days old, in its 
regular Associated Press report, contained the following : 

MoNTGOMEET, Ala., Friday, April 12, 1861. 

An. immense crowd serenaded President Davis and Mr. Walker, Sec- 
retary of "War, at the Exchange Hotel to-night. The former was not 



106 Washington to be Captured. [isei. 

■well, and did not appear. Secretary Walker, in a few words of electrical 
eloquence, told the news from Fort Sumter, declaring, in conclusion, that 
before many hours the flag of the Confederacy would float over that fort- 
ress. No man, he said, could tell where the war this day commenced 
would end, but he would prophesy that the flag which here streams to 
the breeze would float over the dome of the old Capitol at Washington 
before the first of May. Let them test Southern courage and resources, 
and it might float eventually over Faneuil Hall itself. 

All officer from General Bragg' s camp informed me 
that all preparations for capturing Fort Pickens were 
made, the United States sentinels on duty upon a certain 
night being bribed; but that "JS'emo's" intimation of 
the intended attack frustrated it, a copy of his letter 
having found its way into the post, and fore-\Yarned and 
forearmed the commander. 

Everybody was looking anxiously for news from the 
]S"orth. The predictions of certain New York papers, 
that the northern people would inaugurate war at home 
if the Government attempted "coercion," were received 
with entire credulity, and frequently quoted. 

There was much admiration of Major Anderson's 
defense of Sumter ; but the opinion was general, that 
only a military sense of honor dictated his conduct ; that 
now, relieved from a soldier's responsibility, he would 
resign and join the Rebels. "He is too brave a man to 
remain with the Yankees," was the common remark. 
Far in the interior of Georgia, I saw fragments of his 
flag-staff exhibited, and highly prized as relics. 

We dined at the little hamlet of West Point, on the 
line between Alabama and Georgia, and stopped for two 
evening hours at the bustling city of Atlanta. Our stay 
was enlivened by a fresh conversation in the car about 
northern spies and reporters, who were declared to be 
infesting the country, and worthy of hanging wherever 
found. 



1861.] Apprehension about Arming the Negroes. 107 

We spent tlie night in pursuit of sleep under difficul- 
ties, upon a rough Georgia railway. The next morning, 
the scantiness of the disappearing foliage indicated that 
we were going northward. In Augusta, we passed 
through hroad, pleasant shaded streets, and then crossed 
the Savannah river into South Carolina. Companies of 
troops, bound for Charleston, began to come on board 
the train, and were greeted with cheering at all the 
stations. A young Carolinian, taking me for a south- 
erner, remarked : 

"The only thing we fear in this war is that the 
Yankees will arm our slaves and turn them against us." 

This was the iirst statement of the kind I heard. 
Persons had said many times in my presence that they 
were perfectly sure of the slaves — who would all fight 
for their masters. In the last article of faith they proved 
as deluded as those sanguine northerners who believed 
that slave insurrections would everywhere immediately 
result from hostilities. 

At Lee's Station we met the morning train from 
Charleston. Within two yards of my window, I saw a 
dark object disappear under the cow-catcher ; and a 
moment after, a woman, wringing her hands, shrieked : 

" My God ! My God ! Mr. Lee killed !" 

Lying on the track was a shapeless, gory mass, 
which only the clothing showed to be the remains of a 
human being. The station-keeper, attempting to cross 
the road just in advance of the train, was struck down 
and run over. His little son was standing beside him at 
the very moment, and two of his daughters looking on 
from the door of his residence, a few yards away. In 
the first bewilderment of terror, they now stood wildly 
beating their foreheads, and gasping for breath. In 
strange contrast with this scene, a martial band was 



108 Looking at the Captured Fortress. [issl 

discoursing lively music, and people were loudly 
cheering the soldiers. Buoyant Life and grim Death 
stood side by side and walked hand in hand. 

Our train plunged into deep pine woods, and wended 
through large plantations, whose c^ol frame houses 
were shaded hy palmetto-trees. The negro men and 
women, who stood in the fields persuading themselves 
that they were working, handled their hoes with inde- 
scribable awkwardness. A sketch of their exact posi- 
tions would look ridiculously unnatural. They were in 
striking contrast with the zeal and activity of the north- 
ern laborer, who moves under the stimulus of freedom. 

In the afternoon, we passed through the Magnolia 
Cemetery, and in view of the State Arsenal, Avith the 
palmetto flag waving over it. The Mills' House, in 
Charleston, was crowded with guests and citizens, half 
of them in uniform. After I registered my name, a 
brawny fellow, with a "plug-ugly" countenance, looked 
over my shoulder at the book, and then regarded me 
with a long, impudent, scrutinizing stare, which I 
endeavored to return with interest. In a few seconds 
his eyes dropped, and he went back to his seat. 

I strolled down the narrow streets, Avith their anti- 
quated houses, to the pleasant Battery, where several 
columbiads, with pyramidal piles of solid shot between 
them, pointed at Fort Sumter. Down the harbor, among 
a few snow-white sails, stood the already historic fortress. 
The line of broken roof, visible above the walls, was 
torn and ragged from Rebel shots. At the distance of 
two miles, it was impossible, with the naked eye, to 
identify the two flags above it. A bystander told me 
that they were the colors of South Carolina and of the 
Confederacy. 

The devices of treason flaunting in the breeze where 



1861.J A Short Stay in Charleston. 109 

tlie Stars and Stripes, after being insulted for months, 
were so lately lowered in dishonor, were not a pleasant 
spectacle, and I turned slowly and sadly back to the 
hotel. In its reading-room, among the four or five papers 
on file, was a copy of The Tribune^ whose familiar face 
was like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 

The city reeled with excitement. In the evening 
martial music and huzzas came floating up to my window 
from a meeting at the Charleston Hotel, where the young 
Virginian Hotspur, Roger A. Pryor, was one of the prom- 
inent speakers. Publicly and privately, the Charles- 
tonians were boasting over their late Cadmean victory. 
They had not heard from the North. 

I hoped to remain several days, but the public frenzy 
had grown so uncontrollable, that every stranger was 
subjected to espionage. One could hardly pick up a 
newspaper without seeing, or stand ten minutes in a 
public place without hearing, of the arrest of some north- 
erner, charged with being a spy. TVTiile the lines of 
retreat were yet open, it was judicious to flee from the 
wrath to come. 

Designing to stop for a while in ]^orth Carolina, 
whose Rip Van Winkle sleep seemed proof against any 
possible convulsion, I took the midnight train north- 
ward. A number of Baltimoreans on board were re- 
turning home, after assisting at the capture of Sumter. 
They were voluble and boisterous Rebels, declaring in 
good set terms that Maryland would shortly be revolu- 
tionized, Governor Hicks and Henry Winter Davis 
hanged, and President Lincoln driven out of Washing- 
ton. They averred with great vehemence and iteration 
that the Yankees were all cowards, and could easily be 
"whipped out;" but when one, whose denunciations 
had been peculiarly bitter, was asked : 



no The Country on Fire. [isei. 

"Are yon going liome throngli Wasliington ?" 

''Not I," was the reply " Old Abe might have ns 
nabbed !' 

We were soon on the clayey soil of the Old North 
State, which, to the eye, closely resembles those regions 
of Ohio near Lake Erie. Hour after hour, we rode 
through the deep forests of tall pines, from which the 
bark had been stripped for making rosin and turpentine. 

My anticipations of quiet proved altogether delusive. 
President Lincoln's Proclamation, calling for seventy- 
five thousand soldiers, had just arrived by telegraph, 
and the country was on fire. It was the first flush of 
excitement here, and the feeling was more intense and 
demonstrative than in those States which had become 
accustomed to the Revolution. Forts were being seized, 
negroes and white men imj)ressed to labor upon them, 
military companies forming, clergymen taking up the 
musket, and women encouraging the determination to 
fight the "Abolitionists." All Union sentiment was 
awed into utter silence. 

While the train was stopping at Wilmington, a tele- 
gram, announcing that Virginia had passed a Secession 
ordinance, was received with yells of applause. Sitting 
alone at one end of the car, I observed three fellow- 
j)assengers, with whom I had formed a traveling ac- 
quaintance, conferring earnestly. Their frequent glances 
toward me indicated the subject of the conversation. As 
I had said nothing to define my political position, I re- 
solved to set myself right at once, should they put me to 
the test. One of them approached me, and remarked : 
" We just have news that Virginia has seceded." 

I replied, with considerable emphasis : " Grood ! That 
'vill give us all the border States." 

Apparently satisfied, he returned to his friends, and 



1861.] Submitting to Rebel Scrutiny. Ill 

they said no more to me upon the all-absorlbing ques- 
tion. 

A fragment of conyersation which occurred near me, 
will illustrate the general tone of remark. A young man 
ohserved to a gentleman heside him : 

"We shall have possession of Washington before the 
first of June." 

"Do you think so ? Lincoln is going to call out an 
army of one hundred and fifty thousand men." 

' ' Oh, well, we can whip them out any morning be- 
fore breakfast. Throw three or four shells among those 
blue-bellied Yankees and they wiU scatter like a flock 
of sheep !" 

Up to this day I had earnestly hoped that a bloody 
conflict between the two sections might be averted; 
but these remarks were so frequent — the opinion that 
northerners were unmitigated cowards seemed so uni- 
versal,'^ that I began to look with a great deal of com- 
placency Upon the prospect which the South enjoyed 
of testing this faith. It was time to ascertain, once for 
all, whether these gentlemen of the cotton and the cane- 
brake were indeed a superior race, destined to wield the 
scepter, or whether their pretensions were mere arro- 
gance and swagger. 

It seemed impossible for the southern mind to com- 
prehend that he who never blusters, or flourishes the 

* Of course the folly was not all on one side. Few northerners, up 
to the attack on Sumter, thought the Eehels would do any thing hut 
threaten. And long after this error was exploded, our ablest journals 
were fond of contrasting the resources of the two sections, and 
demonstrating therefrom, with mathematical precision, that the war 
could not last long ; that the superiority of the North in men and money 
would make the subjugation of the South a short and easy task. But 
they did not commit the egregious blunder of imputing cowardice to any- 
class of uative-born Americans. 



112 The North Heard From. [isgi. 

bowie-knife, who will endure a great deal "before fight- 
ing, who would rather suffer a wrong than do a wrong, 
is, when roused, the most dangerous of adversaries— a 
fact so universal, that it has given us the proverb, 
"Beware the fury of a patient man." 

New York papers, issued after receiving intelligence 
of the fall of Sumter, now reached us, and both in their 
news and editorial columns indicated how suddenly that 
event had aroused the whole North. The voice of every 
journal was for war. The Herald^ which one morning 
spoke bitterly against coercion, received a visit during 
the day from several thousand tumultuous citizens, 
who left it the alternative of running up the American 
flag or having its ofiice torn down. By the presence 
of the police, and the intercession of leading Union men, 
its property was saved from destruction. In next morn- 
ing' s paper appeared one of its periodical and constitu- 
tional somersaults. Its four editorial articles all cried 
" War to the knife !" ^ 

The Rebels were greatly surprised, half appalled, and 
doubly exasperated at the unexpected change of all the 
northern papers which they had counted friendly to them ; 
but they also shouted "War !" even louder than before. 

At Goldsboro, where we stopped for supper, a small 
slab of marble, standing upon the mantel in the hotel 
office, had these words upon it : 

" Sacred to the memory of A. Lincoln, who died of a broken neck, at 
Kewburn, April 16, 1861." 

Before the train started again, a young patriot, whose 
articulation was impeded by whisky, passed through it, 
asking : 

' ' S' thr any Yankee onth' strain ? F' thr' s a 

Union man board these cars, Ic'nwhip him by . 

H'rahfr Jeff. Davis nth'southrncnfdrcy 1" He afterward 



1861.] An Inebriated Patriot. 113 

amused himself by firing his revolver from the car door. 
At the next station he stepped out upon the platform, 
and repeated : 

' ' H' rah fr Jeff. Davis n' th' Southrn Confdrcy !" 

Another patriot among the bystanders at the station 
promptly responded : 

"Good. Hurra for Jeff. Davis !" 

" Yre th'man fr me," responded our passenger; 
"Come 'n' takeadrink. All fr Jeff. Davis here, ain't 
you?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"Thatsallrightth'n. But what d'you elect that 

Abolitionist, Murphy, t'th' Leg' slature for ?" 

"7' 772. Murphy," replied the patriot, who had been 
standing in the group, but now sprang forward bellige- 
rently. "Who calls me an Abolitionist ?" 

" Beg y'r padon sr. Reck'n you ain't the man. But 
who is that Abolitionist you 'lected here? 's name's 

Brown, 'sn't it? Yes, that's it. Brown; y' ought 

t'hang Mm r^ 

Just then the whistle shrieked and the train moved 
on, amid shouts of laughter. 

At six o'clock next morning, we reached Richmond. 
Here, also, I had hoped to stop, but the caldron was 
seething too hotly. Rebel flags were everywhere flying, 
the newspapers all exulted over the passage of the Se- 
cession ordinance, and some of them warned northerners 
and Union men to leave the country forthwith. The tone 
of conversation, too, was very bitter. The farther I 
went, the intenser the frenzy ; and, beginning to wonder 
whether there was any safe haven south of Philadelphia 
or New York, I continued northward without a moment's 
unnecessary delay. 

The railway accommodations grew better in exact 

8 



114 The Old Dominion in a Frenzy. [issi. 

ratio to onr approach to Mason and Dixon's line, and 
northern physiognomies were numerous on the train. 
At Ashland, a few miles north of Richmond, the first 
palatable meal since leaving the Alabama River was set 
before us. All the intervening distance, to the epicu- 
rean eye, stretched out in a dreary perspective of bacon 
and corn bread. 

Half the passengers were soldiers. Every village 
bristled with bayonets. At Fredericksburg, one of the 
polished F. F. Y.'s on the platform presented his face at 
our window, and asked what the unmentionable-to-ears- 
polite all these people were going north fori As the 
passengers maintained an "heroic reticence," he exploded 
a fresh oath, and went to the next car to pursue his in- 
vestigations. 

A citizen of Richmond, who occupied the seat with 
me, satisfied that I was sound on the Secession question, 
assured me that it had been very difficult to get the 
ordinance through the Convention ; that trouble was 
anticipated from Union men in Western Virginia ; that 
business in Richmond was utterly suspended, ISTew 
York exchange commanding a premium of fifteen per 
cent. , 

"We are fearful," he added, "of difficulty with our 
free negroes. There are several thousand in Richmond, 
many of whom are intelligent, and some wealthy. They 
show signs of turbulence, and we are perfecting an or- 
ganization to hold them in check. I sent the money to 
New York this morning for a quantity of Sharp' s rifles, 
ordering them to be forwarded in dry-goods boxes, that 
they might not excite suspicion." 

He added, that Ben McCulloch was in Yirginia, and 
had perfected a plan by wliich, at the head of Rebel 
troops, he was about to capture Washington. As we 



18C1.] The Old Flag Once Moke. 115 

progressed nortliward, the noisy Secession element grew 
small by degrees, and beautifully less. At Acquia Creek, 
we left the cars and took a steamer up the Potomac. 

A quiet gentleman, who had come on board at Rich- 
mond, impressed me, through that mysterious free- 
masonry which exists among journalists' — indeed, be- 
tween members of all professions — as a representative of 
the Fourth Estate. In reply to inquiries, he informed 
me that he had been reporting the Virginia Convention 
for Tlie Richmond Enquirer^ but, being a New Yorker, 
had concluded, like Jerry Blossom, he wanted "to go 
home." He described the Convention, which at first 
had an emphatic majority for the Government ; but in 
time, one Union man after another was dragooned into 
the ranks, until a bare Secession majority was obtained. 

The ordinance explicitly provided that it should not 
take effect until submitted to the popular vote ; but the 
State authorities immediately assumed that it would be 
ratified. Senator Mason wrote a public letter, warning 
all Union men to leave the State ; and before the time for 
voting arrived, the Secessionists succeeded in inaugura- 
ting a bloody conflict upon the soil, and bringing in 
armies from the Gulf States. It was then ratified by a 
large majority. 

We steamed up the Potomac, passed the quiet tomb 
at Mount Yernon, which was soon to hear the clangor of 
contending armies, and early in the afterno6n came in 
sight of Washington. There, at last, thank God ! was 
the old Starry Banner, flying in triumph over the Capitol, 
the White House, the departments, and hundreds of 
dwellings. Albeit unused to the melting mood, my 
heart was full, and my eyelids quivered as I saw it. 
Until that hour, I never knew how I loved the old flag ! 

Walldng down Pennsylvania avenue, I encountered 



116 An Hour with President Lincoln. [isei. 

troops of old friends, and constantly wondered that I had 
heen able to spend ten weeks in the South, without 
meeting more than two or three familiar acquaintances. 

A body-guard for the President, made up entirely of 
citizens of Kansas, armed with Sharp's rifles, was on 
duty every night at the White House. It contained two 
United States Senators, three members and ex-members 
of Congress, the Chief- Justice of the Supreme Court, and 
several editors and other prominent citizens of that 
patriotic young State. 

With two friends, I spent an hour at the White 
House. The President, though overwhelmed with busi- 
ness, received us kindly, and economized time by taking 
a cup of tea while conversing with us, and inquiring 
very minutely about affairs in the seceding States. 

"Uneasy lies the head tliat wears a crown," 

though the crown be only the chaplet of a Republic. 

This man had filled the measure of American ambi- 
tion, but the remembered brightness of his face was in 
strange contrast with the weary, haggard look it now 
wore, and his blushing honors seemed pallid and ashen. 
There was the same honest, kindly tone — the same fund 
of humorous anecdote — the same genuineness ; but the 
old, free, lingering laugh was gone. 

"Mr. Douglas," remarked the President, "spent 
three hours with me this afternoon. For several days 
he has been too unwell for business, and has devoted his 
time to studying war-matters, until he understands the 
military position better,, perhaps, than any one of the 
Cabinet. By the way," continued Mr. Lincoln, with his 
peculiar twinkle of the eye, ' ' the conversation turned 
upon the rendition of slaves. 'You know,' said Doug- 
las, 'that I am entirely sound on the Fugitive Slave 



1861.] Panic in Washington. 117 

Law. I am. for enforcing it in all cases within its true 
intent and meaning ; but, after examining it carefully, I 
have concluded that a negro insurrection is a case to 
which it does not apply.' " 

I had not come north a moment too early. The train 
which brought me from Richmond to Acquia Creek was 
the last which the Rebel authorities permitted to pass 
without interruption, anji the steamer, on reaching 
Washington, was seized by our own Government, and 
made no more regular trips. Before I had been an hour 
in the Capital, the telegraph wires were cut, and railway 
tracks in Maryland torn up. Intelligence of the mur- 
derous attack of a Baltimore mob on the Sixth Massa- 
chusetts regiment, en route for Washington, startled the 
town from its propriety. 

Chaos had come again. Washington was the seat of 
an intense panic. An attack from the Rebels was 
hourly expected, and hundreds of families fled from the 
city in terror. During the next two days, twenty-five 
hundred well-officered, resolute men could undoubtedly 
have captured the city. The air was filled with ex- 
travagant and startling rumors. From Virginia, Union 
refugees were hourly arriving, often after narrow escapes 
from the frenzied populace. 

Massachusetts soldiers, who had safely run the Balti- 
more gantlet of death, were quartered in the United 
States Senate Chamber. They had mustered with char- 
acteristic promptness. At 5 o'clock one evening, a 
telegram reached Boston asking for troops for the de- 
fense of the imperiled Capital. At 9 o'clock the next 
morning, the first company, having come twenty-five 
miles from the country, stacked arms in Faneuil Hall. 
At 5 o'clock that night the Sixth Regiment, with full 
ranks, started for Washington. They were fine-look- 



118 "Came Out to Fight!" [isei. 

iug fellows, but greatly embittered "by their Baltimore 
experience. In a very quiet, undemonstrative way, they 
manifested an earnest desire for immediate and. active 
service. 

The bewilderment and terror which had so long 
rested like a nightmare on the National authorities — 
which for months had left almost every leading Repub- 
lican statesman timid and undecided — was at last over. 
The echoes of the Charleston guns broke the spell ! 
The masses had been heard from ! Then, as at later 
periods of the war, the popular instinct was clearer and 
truer tiian all the wisdom of the politicians. 

During the three days I spent in AVashington, the 
city was virtually blockaded, receiving neither mails, 
telegrams, nor re-enforcements. Martial law, though not 
declared, was sadly needed. Most of the Secessionists 
had left, but enough remained to serve as spies for the 
Virginia Revolutionists. 

I left for New York, by an evening train croAvded 
with fleeing families. Most of them went west from th(> 
Relay House, deterred from passing through Baltimon^ 
by the reign of terror which the Rebels had inaugurattwl . 
The most zealous Union papers advocated Secession as 
their only means of personal and pecuniary safety. 'l.'( lo 
State and city authorities, though professedly loy.il, 
bowed helpless before the storm. Governor Spnigae, 
with his Rhode Island volunteers, had started for T\'f>yli • 
ington. Mayor Brown telegraphed him, requesting I lint 
they should not come through Baltimore, as it would 
exasperate the people. 

"The Rhode Island regiment," was Sprague's epi- 
grammatic response, " came out to fight, and may just as 
well fight in Maryland as in Virginia," It passed uu 
molested ! 



1861.] Baltimore under Eebel Rule. 119 

We found Baltimore in a frenzy. The wliole city 
seemed under arms. The Union men were utterly 
silenced, and many had fled. The only person I heard 
express undisguised loyalty was a young lady from 
Boston, and only her sex protected her. Several persons 
had been arrested as spies during the day, including two 
supposed correspondents of New York papers. 

Baltimore, for the time, was worse than any thing I had 
seen in Charleston, ISTew Orleans, or Mobile. Through 
the evening Barnum's hotel was filled with soldiers. 
Stepping into the office to make arrangements for going 
to Philadelphia, I encountered an old acquaintance from 
Cincinnati, now commanding a Baltimore company under 
arms : 

"If Lincoln persists in attempting to send troops 
through Maryland," said he, "we are bound to have his 
head!" 

Another Baltimorean came up and began to question 
me, but my acquaintance promptly vouched for me as 
"a true southern man," and I escaped annoyance. The 
same belief was expressed here which prevailed through- 
out the whole South, that northern men were cowards ; 
and persons actually alluded to the attack upon the 
unarmed Massachusetts troops as an act of bravery. 

Leaving Baltimore, I tool^ a carriage for the nearest 
northern railway point. The roads were crowded with 
families leaving the city, and infested by Rebel scouts 
and patrols. Union citizens were helpless. One of them 
said to us : 

"For God's sake, beg the Administration and the 
North not to let us be crushed out ! " 

We hoped to take the Philadelphia cars, twenty-six 
miles out, but a detachment of Baltimore soldiers that 
very morning had passed up the railroad, destroying 



120 The North Fully Aroused. [isbl 

every "bridge; smoke was still rising from tlieir ruins. 
We were compelled to press on and on, until, in the even- 
ing, after a ride of forty-six miles, we reached York, 
Pennsylvania. 

Here, at last, we could breathe freely. But iDoth 
railroads being monopolized by troops, we were compel- 
led, wearily, to drive on to the village of Columbia, on 
the Susquehanna river. There we began to see that the 
North, as well as the South, was under martial rule. 
Ai'med sentinels peremptorily ordered us to halt. 

On identifying the driver, and learning my business, 
they allowed us to proceed. At the bridge, the person 
in charge declined to open the gate : 

"I guess you can't cross to-night, sir," said he. 

I replied by "guessing" that we could; but he con- 
tinued : 

" Our orders are positive, to let no one pass who is 
not personally known to us." 

He soon became convinced that I was not an emis- 
sary of the enemy ; and the sentinels escorted us across 
the bridge, a mUe and a quarter in length. We pro- 
ceeded undisturbed to Lancaster, arriving there at two 
o'clock, after a carriage-ride of seventy miles. Thence 
to New York, communication was undisturbed. 

The cold-blooded North was fully aroused. Rebel 
sympathizers found themselves utterly swept away by 
a Niagara of public indignation. In Pennsylvania, in 
New York, in New England, I heard only the sentiment 
that talking must be ended, and acting begun ; that, cost 
what it might, in money and blood, all must unite to 
crush the gigantic Treason which was closing its fangs 
upon the throat of the Republic. 

The people seemed much more radical than the Presi- 
dent. In all public places, threats were 'heard that, if 



1861.] Uprising of the Whole People. 121 

the Administration faltered, it must be overturned, and 
a dictatorship established. Against the Monumental City, 
feeling was peculiarly bitter. All said : 

" If National troops can not march unmolested through 
Baltimore, that city has stood long enough ! Not one 
stone shall be left upon another." 

I had witnessed a good deal of earnestness and en- 
thusiasm in the South, but nothing at all approaching 
this wonderful uprising of the whole people. All seemed 
imbued with the sentiment of those official papers issued 
before Napoleon was First Consul, beginning, ' ' In the 
name of the French Republic, one and indimsible.'''' 

It was worth a lifetime to see it — to find down through 
all the debris of money-seeking, and all the strata of 
politics, this underlying, primary formation of loyalty — 
this unfaltering determination to vindicate the right of 
the majority, the only basis of republican government. 

The storm-cloud had burst ; the Irrepressible Conflict 
was upon us. Where would it end ? What forecast or 
augury could tell? Revolutions ride rough -shod over 
all probabilities ; and who has mastered the logic of civil 
war? 

Here ended a personal experience, sometimes full of 
discomfort, but always full of interest. It enabled me 
afterward to look at Secession from the stand-point of 
those who inaugurated it ; to comprehend Rebel acts 
and utterances, which had otherwise been to me a sealed 
book. It convinced me, too, of the thorough earnestness 
of the Revolutionists. My published prediction, that we 
should have a seven years' war unless the country used 
its utmost vigor and resources, seemed to excite a mild 
suspicion of lunacy among my personal acquaintances. 

I was the last member of The Tribune stafi" to leave the 
South. By rare good fortune, all its correspondents 



122 A Tribune Correspondent on Trial. [isei. 

escaped personal harm, while representatives of several 
other New York journals were waited npon hy vigilance 
committees, driven ont, and in some cases imprisoned. 
It was a favorite jest, that TJie Tribune was the only 
northern paper whose attaches were allowed in the South- 
Its South Carolinian correspondence had a peculiar 
history. Immediately after the Presidential election, 
Mr. Charles D. Brigham went to Cliarleston as its 
representative. With the exception of two or three 
weeks, he remained there from N'ovember until Febru- 
ary, writing almost daily letters. The Charlestonians 
were excited and indignant, and arrested, in all five or 
six persons whom they unjustly suspected. 

Finally, ahout the middle of February, Mr. Brigham 
was one day taken into custody, and brought before 
Grovernor Pickens and his cabinet counselors, among 
whom Ex-Governor McGrath was the principal in- 
quisitor. At this time the Southern Confederacy ex- 
isted only in embryo, and South Carolina claimed to be 
an independent republic. The correspondent, who had 
grea,t coolness and self-control, and knew a good deal 
of human nature, maintained a serene exterior despite the 
awkwardness of his position. After a rigid catechisation, 
he was relieved to find that the tribunal did not surmise 
his real cliaracter, but suspected him of being a spy of 
the Government. 

His trial took place at the executive head-quarters, 
opposite the Charleston Hotel, and lasted from nine 
o'clock in the morning until nine at night. During the 
afternoon, the city being disturbed by one of its daily 
reports that a Federal fleet had appeared off the bar, he 
was turned over to Mr. Alexander H. Brown, a lead- 
ing criminal lawyer, famous for his skill in examining 
witnesses. Mr. Brown questioned, re-questioned, and 



1861.] He is Warned to Depart. 123 

cross-questioned the vagrant scribe, but was completely 
"baflfted by liim. He finally said : 

"Mr. Brigliam, while I think you are all right, this 
is a peculiar emergency, and you must see that, under 
the circumstances, it will be necessary for you to leave 
the South at once." 

The " sweet sorrow" of parting gladdened his jour- 
nalistic heart ; but, at the bidding of prudence, he re- 
plied : 

" I hope not, sir. It is very hard for one who, as you 
are bound to admit, after the most rigid scrutiny, has 
done nothing improper, who has deported himself as a 
gentleman should, who sympathizes with you as far as 
a stranger can, to be driven out in this way." 

The attorney replied, with that quiet significance 
which such remarks possessed : 

"I am sorry, sir, that it is not a question for argu- 
ment." 

The lucky journalist, while whispering he would 
ne'er consent, consented. Whereupon the lawyer, who 
seemed to have some qualms of conscience, invited him 
to join in a bottle of wine, and when they had become 
a little convivial, suddenly asked : 

"By the way, do you know who is writing the letters 
from here to TTie Tribune ? 

' ' Why, no, ' ' was the answer. ' ' I haven't seen a copy 
of that paper for six months ; but I supposed there 
was no such person, as I had read in your journals that 
the letters were purely fictitious." 

"There is such a man," replied Brown ; "and thus 
far, though we have arrested four or five persons, sup- 
posing that we had found him, he completely baflles us. 
Now, when you get home to New York, can't you ascer- 
tain who he is, and let us know ?" 



124 Tribune Representatives in Charleston, [isei. 

Mr. Brigham, knowing exactly wliat tone to adopt 
with the " Chivalry," replied : 

" Of course, sir, I would not act as a. spy for you or 
anybody else. However, such things have a kind of 
publicity ; are talked of in saloons and on street-corners. 
If I can learn in that way who Tlie Ti^ibune correspond- 
ent is, I shall deem it my duty to advise you." 

The lawyer listened with credulity to this whisper of 
hope, though a well-known Rebel detective, named Shou- 
bac — a swarthy, greasy, uncomfortable fellow, with a 
Jewish countenance — did not. He remarked to the late 
prisoner : 

" You haven't fooled me, if you have Brown." 

But Mr. Brigham was allowed to depart in peace for 
New York, The Tribune afterward had in Charleston 
five or six different correspondents, usually keeping two 
there at a time for emergencies. Often they did not 
know each other personally ; and there was no communi- 
cation between them. When one was arrested, there 
was always another in reserve to continue the corre- 
spondence. Mr. Brigham, who remained in the home 
editorial rooms, retouched the letters just enough to 
stamp them as the work of one hand, and the baffled 
authorities went hopelessly up and down to cast out the 
evil spirit which troubled their peace, and whose unsus- 
pected name was legion. 



1861.] A Sunday at Niagara Falls. 125 



II. 
THE FIELD, 



CHAPTEK IX. 

Cry Haroc I and let slip the dogs of Wflf.— Jirtrus C^BAK. 

Sakcho Pafza passed away too early. To-day, lie 
would extend Ms benediction on tlie man who invented 
sleep, to the person who introduced sleeping-cars. The 
name of that philanthropist, by '^hose luxurious aid we 
may enjoy unbroken sleep at the rate of twenty-five 
miles an hour, should not be concealed from a grateful 
posterity. 

Thus I soliloquized one May evening, when, in pur- 
suit of that "seat of war,'' as yet visible only to the 
prophetic eye, or in newspaper columns, I turned my face 
westward. It were more exact to say, ''turned my 
heels." Inexorable conductors compel the drowsy pas- 
senger to ride feet foremost, on the hypothesis that he 
would rather break a leg than knock his brains out. 

I was detained for a day at. Suspension Bridge ; but 
life has more afflictive dispensations, even for the im- 
patient traveler, than a Sunday at Niagara Falls. Vanity 
of vanities indeed must existence be to him who could 
not find a real Sabbath at the great cataract, laying hia 
tired head upon the calm breast of Nature, and feeling 
the pulsations of her deep, loving heart ! 

Eight years had intervened since my last visit. There 



126 View from the Suspension Bridge. [isgl 

was no second pang of the disappointment we feel in 
seeing for the first time any object of world-wide fame. 
In Nature, as in Art, the really great, however falling 
below the ideal at first glance, grows upon the beholder 
forever afterward. 

Though the visiting season had not begun, the harpies 
were waiting for their victims. Step out of your hotel, 
or turn a corner, and one instantly pounced upon you. 
But, though numerous, they were quiet, and decorous 
manners, even in leeches, are above all praise. 

Everybody at the Falls is eager to shield you from 
the extortion of everybody else. The driver, whom yon 
pay two dollars per hour ; the vender, who sells you 
Indian bead- work at a profit of one hundred per cent. ; 
the guide, who fleeces you for leading to places you 
would rather find without him — each warns you against 
the other, with touching zeal for your welfare. And the 
precocious boy, who offers a bit of slate from under the 
Cataract for two shillings, cautions you to beware of 
them all. 

As you cross the suspension bridge, the driver points 
out the spot, more than two hundred feet above the 
water, where Blondin, of tight-rope renown, crossed upon 
a single strand, with a man upon his shoulders, cooked his 
aerial omelet, hung by the heels, and played other fan- 
tastic tricks before high heaven. 

From the bridge you view three sections of the Cata- 
ract. First, is the lower end of the American Fall, 
whose deep green is intermingled with jets and streaks 
of white. Its smooth surface conveys the impression of 
the segment of a slowly revolving wheel rather than of 
tumbling water. Beyond the dense foliage appears an- 
other section, parted in the middle by the stone tower on 
Qoat Island. Its water is of snowy whiteness, and looks 



1861.] Palace of the Frost King. 127 

like an immense frozen fountain. Still farther is tlie 
great Horse-slioe Fall, its deep green surface veiled at 
tlie base in clouds of pure white mist. 

Here, at the distance of two miles, the Falls soothe 
you with their quiet, surpassing beauty. But when you 
reach them on the Canada side, and go down, down, be- 
neath Table Rock^ under the sheet of water, you feel 
their sublimity. As you look out upon the sea of snowy 
foam below, or through the rainbow hues of the vast 
sweeping curtain above, the earth trembles with the un- 
ceasing thunder of the cataract. 

In winter the effect is grandest. Then, from the 
bank in front of the Clifton House, you look down on 
upright rocks, crowned with pinnacles of ice, till they 
rise half way to the summit, or catch glimpses of the 
boundless column of water as it strikes the torrent be- 
low, faintly seen through the misty, alabaster spray 
rising forever from its troubled bed. Hundreds of 
white-winged sea-gulls graze the rapids above, and cir- 
cle down to plunge in the waters below. 

Attired in stiff, cold, water-proof clothing, which, 
culminating in a round oil-cloth cap, makes you look 
like an Esquimaux and feel like a mummy, you follow 
the guide far down dark, icy stairs and paths. 

Look up ninety feet, and see the great torrent pour 
over the brink. Look down seventy feet from your icy 
little shelf, and behold it plunge into the dense mist of 
the boiling gulf. Through its half-transparent sheet, 
filtered rays of the bright sunshine struggle toward your 
eyes. You are in the palace of the Frost King. Ice — 
ice everywhere, from your slippery foothold to the huge 
icicles, fifty feet long and three feet thick, which over- 
hang you like the sword of Damocles. 

Admiration without comparison is vague and unsatis- 



128 Chicago Rising from the Earth. [isgi. 

factory. Less glorious, because less vast, than the match- 
less panorama seen from the summit of Pike's Peak, 
this picture is nearly as impressive, because spread right 
beside you, and at your very feet. Less minutely 
beautiful than the exquisite chambers of the Mammoth 
Cave, its great range and sweep make it more grand and 
imposing. 

Along the Great Western Railway of Canada, the 
country closely resembles northern Ohio ; but the peo- 
ple have uncompromising English faces. A well- 
dressed farmer and his wife rode upon our train all day 
in a second-class car, without seeming in the least 
ashamed of it— a moral courage not often exhibited in the 
United States. 

At Detroit, an invalid, pale, wasted, unable to speak 
above a whisper, was lying on a bed hastily spread 
upon the floor of the railway station. Her husband, 
with their two little boys bending over her in tears, told 
us that they had been driven from 'New Orleans, and he 
was now taldng his dying wife to their old home in 
Maine. There were few dry eyes among the lookers-on. 
A liberal sum of money was raised on the spot for the 
destitute family, whose broken pride, after some persua- 
sion, accepted it. 

The next morning we reached Chicago. In that 
breezy city upon the lake shore, property was literally 
rising. Many of the largest brick and stone blocks were 
being elevated five or six feet, by a verj^ nice system of 
screws under their walls, while people were constantly 
pouring in and out of them, and the transaction of busi- 
ness was not impeded. The stupendous enterprise was 
undertaken that the streets might be properly graded 
and drained. This summoning a great metropolis to rise 
from its vasty deep of mud, is one of the modern miracles 



1861.] Mysteries of Western Currency. 129 

of mechanics, which make even geological revelations 
appear trivial and common-place. 

The world has many mysteries, "but none more in- 
scrutable than Western Currency. The notes of most 
Illinois and Wisconsin banks, based on southern State 
bonds, having depreciated steadily for several weeks, 
gold and New York exchange now commanded a pre- 
mium of twenty per cent. The Michigan Central Rail- 
way Company was a good illustration of the effect of 
this upon Chicago interests. That corporation was 
paying six thousand dollars per week in premiums 
upon eastern exchange. Yet the hotels and mercantile 
houses were receiving the currency at par. One Illi- 
nois bank-note depreciated just seventy per cent., 
during the twelve hours it spent in my possession ! 

In Chicago I encountered an old friend just from 
Memphis. His association with leading Secessionists for 
some time protected him ; but the popular frenzy was 
now so wild that they counselled him, as he valued 
his life, to stay not upon the order of his going, but go 
at once. 

The Memphians were repudiating northern debts, 
and, with unexampled ferocity, driving out all men sus- 
pected of Abolitionism or Unionism. More than five 
thousand citizens had been forced or frightened away, 
and in many cases beggared. A secret Committee of 
Safety, made up of prominent citizens, was ruling with 
despotic sway. 

Scores of suspected persons were brought before it 
daily, and, if they could not exculpate themselves, sen- 
tenced to banishment, with head half shaved, to whip- 
ping, or to death. Though, by the laws of all slave States, 
negroes were precluded from testifying against white 
men, this inquisition received their evidence. My friend 



130 A Horrible Spectacle in Arkansas. [isei. 

dared not avow tliathe was coming North, Ibut purchased 
a ticket for St. Louis, which was then deemed a Relbel 
stronghold. 

As the steamer passed Osceola, Arkansas, he saw the 
Ibody of a man hanging 'by the heels, in full view of the 
river. A citizen told him that it had been there for eight 
days ; that the wretched victim, upon mere suspicion of 
tampering with slaves, was suspended, head downward, 
and suffered intensely before death came to his relief. 

All on board the crowded steamboat pretended to be 
Secessionists. But when, at last, nearing Cairo, they saw 
the Stars and Stripes, first one, then another, began to 
huzza. The enthusiasm was contagious ; and in a mo- 
ment nearly all, many with heaving breasts and stream- 
ing eyes, gave vent to their long- suppressed feeling in 
one tumultuous cheer for the Flag of the Free. Of the 
one hundred and fifty passengers, nearly every man was 
a fleeing Unionist. 

The all-pervading railroad and telegraph in the N'orth 
began to show their utility in war. Cairo, the extreme 
southern point of Illinois, now garrisoned by Union 
troops, was threatened by the enemy. The superintend- 
ent of the Illinois Central Railway (including branches, 
seven hundred and four miles in length) assured me that, 
at ten hours' notice, he could start, from the various 
points along his line, four miles of cars, capable of trans- 
porting twenty-four thousand soldiers. 

The Rebels now began to perceive their mistake in 
counting upon the friendship of the great Northwest. 
Indeed, of all their wild dreams, this was wildest. They 
expected the very States which claimed Mr. Lincoln as 
from their own section, and voted for him by heavy ma- 
jorities, to help break up the Union because he was 
-elected! Though learning their delusion, they never 



1861.] Patriotism of the Northwest. 131 

comprelieiided its cause. After tlie war had continued 
nearly a year, The New Orleans Delta said : 

"The people of the Northwest are our natural allies, and ought to 
be fighting on our side. It is ,the profoundest mystery of these times 
how the few Yankee peddlers and school-marms there have been able tO' 
convert them into our bitter enemies." 

On the mere instinct of nationa]ity — the bare question 
of an undivided republic — the West would perhaps fight 
longer, and sacrifice more, than any other section. Its 
people, if not more earnest, are much more demonstrative 
than their eastern brethren. Their long migration from 
the Atlantic States to the Mississippi, the Missouri, or 
the Platte, has quickened and enlarged their patriotism. 
It has made our territorial greatness to them no abstrac- 
tion, but a reality. 

No one else looks forward with such faith and fervor 
to that great future when man shall "fill up magnifi- 
cently the magnificent designs of Nature ;" when their 
Mississippi Valley shall be the heart of mightiest empire ; 
when, from all these mingling nationalities, shall spring 
the ripe fruitage of free schools and free ballots, in a 
higher average Man than the world has yet seen. 

Our train from Chicago to St. Louis was crowded with 
Union troops. Along the route booming guns saluted 
them ; handkerchiefs fluttered from windows ; flags 
streamed from farm-houses and in village streets ; old 
men and boys at the plow huzzaed themselves hoarse. 

Thus, at the rising of the curtain, the northwestern 
States, worthy offspring of the Ordinance of Eighty- 
seven, were sending out — 

" A multitude, like which the populous North 
Poured never from her frozen loins." 

Four blood-stained years have not dimmed their faith 



132 Missouri Kebels bent on Revolution. [isei. 

or albated their ardor. "Wherever Death spread his 
"banquet, they furnished many guests." What histories 
have they not made for themselves ! Ohio, Iowa, Kan- 
sas, Wisconsin — indeed, if we call their roll, which State 
has not covered herself with honor— which has not 
achieved her Lexington — her Saratoga — her Bennington — 
though the l)attle-field lie beyond her soil ?* 

In St. Louis I found at last a " seat of war." Recent 
days had heen full of startling events. The Missouri 
Legislature, at Jefferson City, desired to pass a Seces- 
sion ordinance, but had no pretext for doing so. The 
election of a State Convention, to consider this very sub- 
ject, had just demonstrated, by overwhelming Union 
majorities, the loyalty of the masses. Claiborne Fox 
Jackson, the Gfoyernor, was a Secessionist, and was de- 
termined to plunge Missouri into revolution. This 
flagrant, open warfare against the popular majority, 
well illustrated how grossly the Rebels deceived them- 
selves in supposing that their conduct was impelled by 
regard for State Rights, rather than by the inherent an- 
tagonism between free and slave labor. 

Camp Jackson, commanded by Gen. D. M. Frost, 
was established at Lindell Grove, two miles west of 
St. Louis, "for the organization and instruction of the 
State Militia." It •embraced some Union men, both offi- 
cers and privates. Frost and his friends claimed that 
it was loyal ; but the State flag, only, was flying from 
the camp, and its streets were named "Davis Avenue," 
"Beauregard Avenue," etc. , 

* Now (April, 1865), while we are witnessing some of the closing 
scenes of the war, subscriptions to the popular loan of the Government 
come pouring in from the West more largely, according to wealth and 
population, than from any other section. 



1861.] Nathaniel Lyon and Camp Jackson. 133 

An envoy extraordinary, sent Iby Governor Jackson, 
had just returned from Louisiana witli sliot, shell, and 
mortars — all stolen from the United States Arsenal at 
Baton Rouge. The camp was really designed as the 
nucleus of a Secession force, to seize the Grovernment 
property in St. Louis and drive out the Federal authori- 
ties. But the Union men were too prompt for the 
Rel)els. Long before the capture of Fort Sumter, 
nightly drills were instituted among the loyal Germans 
of St. Louis ; and within two weeks after the President's 
first call for troops, Missouri had ten thousand Union 
soldiers, armed, equipped, and in camp. 

The first act of the Union authorities was to remove 
by night all the munitions from the United States Ar- 
senal near St. Louis, to Alton, Illinois. When the Reb- 
els learned it, they were intensely exasperated. The 
Union troops were commanded by a quiet, slender, 
stooping, red-haired, pale-faced officer, who walked 
about in brown linen coat, wearing no military insignia. 
He was by rank a captain ; his name was Nathaniel 
Lyon. 

On the tenth of May, Capt. Lyon, with three or four 
hundred regulars, and enough volunteers to swell 
his forces to five thousand, planted cannon upon the 
hills commanding Camp Jackson, and sent to Gen. Frost 
a note, reciting conclusive evidence of its treasonable 
intent, and concluding as follows : 

" I do hereby demand of you an immediate surrender of your com- 
mand, with no other conditions than that all persons surrendering 
shall be humanely and kindly treated. Believing myself prepared to 
enforce this demand, one-half hour's time will be allowed for your 
compliance." 

This contrasted so sharply with the shuffling timidity 
of our civil and military authorities, usual at this period, 



134 Sterling Price Joins the Kebels. [isei. 

tliat Frost was surprised and " shocked. " His reply, 
of course, characterized the demand as "illegal" and 
"unconstitutional." In those days there were no such 
sticklers for the Constitution as the men taking up arms 
against it ! Frost wrote that he surrendered only upon 
compulsion — ^liis forces beinir too weak for resistance. 
The encampment was found to contain twenty cannon, 
more than twelve hundred muskets, many mortars, 
siege-howitzers, and shells, charged ready for use — 
which convinced even the most skeptical that it was 
something more than a school for instruction. 

The garrison, eight hundred strong, were marched 
out under guard. There were many thousands of spec- 
tators. Hills, fields, and house-tops were "black with 
people. In spite of orders to disperse, crowds fol- 
lowed, jeering the Union troops, throwing stones, brick- 
bats, and other missiles, and finally discharging pistols. 
Several soldiers were hurt, and one captain shot down at 
the head of his company, when the troops fired on the 
crowd, killing twenty and wounding eleven. As in all 
such cases, several innocent persons suffered. 

Intense excitement followed. A large public meeting 
convened that evening in front of the Planter' s House — 
heard bitter speeches from Governor Jackson, Sterling 
Price, and others. The crowd afterward went to mob 
The Democrat office, but it contained too many resolute 
Unionists, armed with rifles and hand-grenades, and they 
wisely desisted. 

Sterling Price was president of the State Convention 
— elected as an Unconditional Unionist. But, in this 
whirlwind, he went over to the enemy. An old feud ex- 
isted between him and a leading St. Louis loyalist. 
Price had a small, detached command in the Mexican 
war. Afterward, he was Governor of Missouri, and can- 



1861.] Severe Loss to the Unionists. 135 

didate for the United States Senate. An absurd sketcla, 
magnifying a trivial skiiinisli into a great "battle, with 
Price looming up heroically in the foreground, was 
drawn and engraved by an unfortunate artist, then in 
the Penitentiary. It pleased Price' s vanity ; he circu- 
lated it largely, and pardoned out tlie suffering votary 
of art. 

When the Legislature was about voting for United 
States Senator, Prank Blair, Jr., then a young member 
from St. Louis, obtained permission to say a few words 
about the candidates. He was a great vessel of wrath, 
and administered a terrible excoriation, pronouncing 
Price "worthy the genius of a convict artist, and fit 
subject for a Penitentiary print !" Price was defeated, 
and the rupture never healed. 

At the outbreak of the Rebellion, Price was far more 
loyal than men afterward prominent Union leaders in 
Missouri. In those chaotic days, very slight influences 
decided the choice of many. By tender treatment, Price 
could doubtless have been retained ; but neither party 
regarded him as possessing much ability. 

His defection proved a calamity to the Loyalists. He 
was worth twenty thousand soldiers to the Rebels, and 
developed rare military talent. Like Robert E, Lee, he 
was an old man, of pure personal character, sincerity, 
kindness of heart, and unequaled popularity among tlie 
self-sacrificing ragamuffins whom he commanded. He 
held them together, and induced them to fight with a 
bravery and persistency which, Rebels though they 
were, was creditable to the American name. With a 
good cause, they would have challenged the world's 
acclamation. 

At this time the President v/as treating the border 
slave States with mai-yelous tenderness and timidity. 



136 St. Louis in a Convulsion. [isei. 

The Rev. M. D. Conway declared, wittily, that Mr. Lin- 
coln' s daily and nightly invocation ran : 

"O Lord, I desire to have Thee on mj side, but I mv^t have Ken- 
tucky!" 

Captain Lyon was confident that if he asked per- 
mission to seize Camp Jackson, it would be refused. So 
he captured the camp, and then telegraphed to Washing- 
ton—not what he proposed to do, but what he Iiad done. 
At first his act was disapproved. But the loyal country 
applauded to the echo, and Lyon' s name was everywhere 
honored. Hence the censure was withheld, and he was 
made a Brigadier- General ! 

Governor Jackson "burned the bridges on the Pacific 
Railroad ; the Missouri Legislature passed an indirect 
ordinance of Secession, and adjourned in a panic, caused 
by reports that Lyon vf as coming ; a Union regiment 
was attacked in St. Louis, and again fired into the 
mob, with deadly results. The city was convulsed with 
terror. Every available vehicle, including heavy 
ox wagons, was brought into requisition ; every out- 
, going railway train was crowded with passengers ; every 
avenue was thronged with fugitives ; every steamer at 
the levee was laden with families, who, with no definite 
idea of where they were going, had hastily packed a few 
articles of clothing, to flee from the general and bloody 
conflict supposed to be impending between the Ameri- 
cans and the Dutch, as Secessionists artfully termed 
the two parties. Thus there became a " Seat of War." 

Heart-rending as were the stories of most southern 
refugees, some were altogether ludicrous. In St. Louis, 
I encountered an old acquaintance who related to me his 
recent experiences in Nashville. Grandiloquent enough 
they sounded ; for his private conversation always ran 
into stump speeches. 



i?t5i.] A Nashville Experience. 137 

" One day," said lie, "I was waited on by a party of 
leading Nashville citizens, who remarked: 'Captain 
May, U)e know very v/ell that you are with us in senti- 
ment ; "but, as you come from the North, others, less inti- 
mate with you, desire some special assurance.' I replied : 
' Gentlemen, by education, by instinct, and by associa- 
tion, I am a Southern man. But, gentlemen, when you 
fire upon that small bit of bunting known as the Amer- 
ican flag, you can count me, by Heaven, as your per- 
sistent and uncompromising foe !' The committee inti- 
mated to me that the next train for the North started in 
one hour ! You may stake your existence, sir, that the 
subscriber came away on that train. Confound a coun- 
try, anyhow, where a man must wear a Secession cock- 
ade upon each coat-tail to keep himself from being 
kicked as an Abolitionist !" 

Inexorable war knows no ties of friendship, of family, 
or of love. Its bitterest features were seen on the border, 
where brother was arrayed against brother, and husband 
against wife. At a little Missouri village, the Rebels 
raised their flag, but it was promptly torn down by the 
loyal wife of one of the leaders. I met a lady who 
had two brothers in the Union army, and two among 
Price's Rebels, who were likely soon to meet on the 
battle-field. 

In St. Louis, a Rebel damsel, just about to be married, 
separated from her Union lover, declaring that no man 
who favored the Abolitionists and the "Dutch hirelings" 
■could be her husband. He retorted that he had no use 
for a wife who sympathized with treason ; and so the 
match was broken oif. 

I knew a Union soldier who found at Camp Jackson, 
among the prisoners, his own brother, wounded by two 
Minie rifle balls. He said: "I am sorry my brother 



138 Bitterness of Old Neighbors. [issl 

was shot ; but lie should not have joined the traitors !" 
Of course, the "bitterness between relatives and old 
neighbors, now foes, was infinitely greater than between 
northerners and southerners. The same was true every- 
where. How intensely the Virginia and Tennessee 
Rebels hated their fellow-citizens who adhered to the 
Union cause ! Ohio and Massachusetts Loyalists de- 
nounced northern ' ' Copperheads' ' with a malignity which 
they never felt toward South Carolinians and Missis- 
sippians. 

St. Louis, Maij 20, 1861. 

When South Carolina seceded, the slave property of 
Missouri was worth forty-five millions of dollars ; hence 
she is under bonds to just that amount to keep the peace. 
With thirteen hundred miles of frontier, she is "a slave 
peninsula in an ocean of free soil." Free Kansas, which 
has many old scores to clear up, guards her on the west. 
Free Iowa, embittered by hundreds of Union refugees, 
watches her on the north. Free Illinois, the young 
giantess of the prairie, takes care of her on the east. 
This loyal metropolis, with ten Union regiments already 
under arms, is for her a sort of front-door police. Mis- 
souri, in the significant phrase of the frontier, is corraled.'^ 

Here, at least, as The Ridimond Whig, just before 
going over to the Rebels, so aptly said: "Secession is 
Abolitionism in its worst and most dangerous form." 

Rebels glare upon Union men like chained wild 
beasts. Citizens, walking by night, remember the late 
assassinations, and, like Americans in Mexican towns, 
cast suspicious glances behind. Secessionists utter fierce 

* From the Spanisli corral^ a yard. Upon our frontier it is used, col- 
loquially, as a verb, to signify surrounded, captured, completely in the 
power, or at the mercy, of another. 



1861.] Good Soldiers for ScALiNa Walls. 139 

threats ; Ibut since tlieir recent severe admonition tliat 
Unionists, too, can use fire-arms, and that it is not discreet 
to attack United States soldiers, tliey do not execute 
them. 

Captain Lyon, who commands, is an exceedingly 
prompt and efficient officer, attends strictly to his linsi- 
ness, exhibits no hunger for newspaper fame, and seems 
to act with an eye single to the honor of the Government 
he has served so long and so faithfully. 

Among our regiments is the Missohri First, Colonel 
Frank P. Blair. Three companies are made up of Ger- 
man Turners — the most accomplished of gymnasts. They 
are sinewy, muscular fellows, with deep chests and well- 
knit frames. Every man is an athlete. To-day a party, 
by way of exercise, suddenly formed a human pyramid, 
and commenced running up, like squirrels, over each 
other' s shoulders, to the high veranda upon the second 
story of their building. In climbing a wall, they would 
not require scaling-ladders. There are also two compa- 
nies from the Far West — old trappers and hunters, who 
have smelt gunpowder in Indian warfare. 

Colonel Blair's dry, epigrammatic humor bewilders 
some of his visitors. I was sitting in his head-quarters 
when a St. Louis Secessionist entered. Like nearly all of 
them, he now pretends to be a Union man, but is very 
tender on the subject of State Rights, and wonderfully 
solicitous about the Constitution. He remarked : 

' ' I am a Union man, but I believe in State Rights. I 
believe a State may dissolve its connection with the Gov- 
ernment if it wants to." 

"O yes," replied Blair, pulling away at his ugly 
mustache, "yes, you can go out if you want to. Cer- 
tainly you can secede. But, my friend, you can't take 
with you one foot of American soil !" 



140 Missouri and the Slaveholders. [isgi. 

A citizen of Lexington introduced Mmself, saying : 
"I am a loyal man, ready to jBght for tlie Union ; l^nt 
I am pro-slavery — I own niggers." 

"Well, sir," replied Blair, with tlie faintest sugges- 
tion of a smile on his plain, grim face, "you have a right 
to. "We don't like negroes very much ourselves. If 
you do, that's a matter of taste. It is one of your 
privileges. But if you gentlemen who own negroes 
attempt to take the State of Missouri out of the Union, in 

ahout six months you will he the most niggerless 

set of individuals that you ever heard of!" 



1861.] General McClellan at Caieo. 141 



CHAPTER X. 



Only we want a little personal strength, 
And pause until these Rebels, now afoot, 
Come underneath, the yoke of Government. — 

King Heney IV. 



Caieo, as the key to tlie lower Mississippi valley, is 
tlie most important strategic' point in tlie West. Imme- 
diately after the outbreak of hostilities, it was occupied 
by our troops. 

. As a place of residence it was never inviting. To-day 
its offenses smell to heaven as rankly as when Dickens 
evoked it, from horrible obscurity, as the "Eden" of 
Martin Chuzzlewit. The low, marshy, boot-shaped site 
is protected from the overflow of the Mississippi and 
Ohio by levees. Its jet-black soil generates every 
species of insect and reptile known to science or imagina- 
tion. Its atmosphere is never sweet or pure. 

On the 13th of June, Major-General George B. 
McClellan, commander of all the forces west of the Al- 
leghanies, reached Cairo on a visit of inspection. His 
late victories in Western Virginia had established his 
reputation for the time, as an officer of great capacity 
and promise, notwithstanding the high heroics of his 
ambitious proclamations. This was before Bull Run, 
and before the New York journals, by absurdly pro- 
nouncing him "the Young Napoleon," raised public 
expectation to an embarrassing and unreasonable hight. 

In those days, every eye was looking for the Coming 
Man, every ear listening for his approaching footsteps, 



142 A Little Speech-Making. [isei. 

wMcli were to make the earth tremlble. Men judged, 
"by old standards, that the Hour must have its Hero. 
They had not learned that, in a country like ours, what- 
ever is accomplished must be the work of the loyal 
millions, not of any one, or two, or twenty generals 
and statesmen. 

McClellan was enthusiastically received, and, to the 
strains of the " Star Spangled Banner," escorted to head- 
quarters. There, G-eneral Prentiss, who had so decided 
a penchant for speech-making, that cynics declared he 
always kept a particular stump in front of his office 
for a rostrum, welcomed him with some rhetorical re- 
marks : 

* * * * u -^j command are all anxious to taste those dangers 
■which war ushers in — not that they court danger, but that they love 
their country. We have toiled in the mud, we have drilled in the burn- 
ing sun. Many of us are ragged — all of us are poor. But "we look 
anxiously for the order to move, trusting that we may be allowed to lead 
the division." 

The soldiers applauded enthusiastically — for in those 
■ days the anxiety to Ibe in the earliest l)attles was in- 
tense. The impression was almost universal throughout 
the North that the war was to be very brief. Officers 
and men in the army feared they would have no oppor- 
tunity to participate in any fighting ! 

McClellan responded to Prentiss and his officers in 
the same strain : 

: * * * <i We shall meet again upon the tented field ; and Illinois, 
which sent forth a Hardin and a Bissell, will, I doubt not, give a good 
account of herself to her sister States. Her fame is world-wide : in your 
hands, gentlemen, I am sure it will not suffer. The advance is due to 
you." 

Then there was more applause, and afterward a re- 
view of the brigade. 



18G1.] Penalty of Writing for the Tribune. 143 

General McClellan is stoutly built, sliort, with light 
hair, blue eyes, full, fresh, almost boyish face, and lip 
tufted with a brown mustache. His urbane manner 
truly indicates the peculiar amiability of character and 
yielding disposition which have hurt him more than all 
other causes. An officer once assured me that McClellan 
had said to him: "My friends have injured me a 
thousand times more than my enemies." It was cer- 
tainly true. 

'Now, seeing his features the first time, I scanned them 
anxiously for lineaments of greatness. I saw a pleasant, 
mUd, moony face, with one cheek distended by tobacco ; 
but nothing which appeared strong or striking. Tinc- 
tured largely with the general belief in his military 
genius, I imputed the failure only to my own incapacity 
for reading "Nature's infinite book of secrecy." 

One evening, at Cairo, a man, whose worn face, 
shaggy beard, matted locks, and tattered clothing 
marked him as one of the constantly arriving refugees, 
sought me and asked : 

"Can you tell me the name of The Tribune corre- 
spondent who passed through Memphis last February ?" 

He was informed that that pleasure had been mine. 

"Then," said he, "I have been lying in jail at Mem- 
phis about fifty days chiefly on your account ! The 
three or four letters which you wrote from there were 
peculiarly bitter. Of course, I was not aware of your 
presence, and I sent one to TAe Tribune, which was also 
very emphatic. The Secessionists suspected me not only 
of the one which I did write, but also of yours. They 
pounced on me and put me in jail. After the disband- 
ing of the Committee of Safety I was brought before 
the City Recorder, who assured me from the bench of 
his profound regrets that he could find no law for hang- 



144 A Loyal Girl's Assistance. [isgl 

ing me ! I wonld have Ibeen there until this time, Ibut 
for the assistance of a young lady, through whom I suc- 
ceeded in "bribing an officer of the jail, and making my 
escape. I was hidden in Memphis for several days, 
then left the city in disguise, and have worked my way, 
chiefly on foot, aided hy negroes and Union families, 
through the woods of Tennessee and the swamps of Mis- 
souri up to God's country." 

The refugee seemed to be not only in good health, but 
also in excellent spirits, and I replied : 

" I am very sorry for your misfortunes ; but if the 
Reebls must have one of us, I am very glad that it was 
not I." 

I^early four years later, this gentleman turned the 
tables on me very handsomely. After my twenty 
months imprisonment in Rebel hands, among a crowd of 
visitors he walked into my room at Cincinnati one morn- 
ing, and greeted me warmly. 

" You do not remember me, do you ?" he asked. 

" I recognize your face, but cannot recall your name," 

"Well, my name is Collins. Once, when I escaped 
from the South, you congratulated me at Cako. 'Now, I 
congratulate you, and I can do it with all my heart, 
in exactly the same words. I am very sorry for your 
misfortunes ; but if the Rebels must have one of us, I 
am very glad that it was not I !" 

After our troops captured Memphis, I encountered 
the young lady who aided Mr. Collins in escaping. She 
was enthusiastically loyal, but her feeling had been 
repressed for nearly two years, when the arrival of our > 
forces loosened her tongue. She began to utter her 
long-stifled Union views, and it is my deliberate opiaion 
that she has not stopped yet. She is now the wife of an 
officer in the United States service. 



1861.] The Fascinations of Cairo. 145 

Cairo, May 29. 

A drizzly, muddy, melanclioly day. K'ever other- 
wise than forlorn, Cairo is pre-eminently lugubrious 
during a mild rain. In dry weather, even when glowing 
like a furnace, you may find amusement in the contem- 
plation of the high- water mark upon trees and houses, 
the stilted-plank sidewalks, the half- submerged swamps, 
and other diluvian features of this nondescript, saucer- 
like, terraqueous town. You may speculate upon the 
exact amount of fever and ague generated to the acre, or 
inquire whether the whisky saloons, which spring up 
like mushrooms, are indigenous or exotic. 

In downright wet weather you may calculate how 
soon the streets will be navigable, and the effect upon 
the amphibious natives. It is difficult to realize that 
anybody was ever born here, or looks upon Cairo as 
home. Washington Irving records that the old Dutch 
housewives of N'ew York scrubbed their floors until 
many "grew to have webbed fingers, like unto a duck." 
I suspect the Cairo babies must have fins. 

Long-suffering, much-abused Cairo ! What wounds 
hast thou not received from the Parthian arrows of 
tourists ! " The season here," wrote poor John Phenix, 
bitterest of all, "is usually opened with great eclat by 
small-pox, continued spiritedly by cholera, and closed 
up brilliantly with yellow fever. Sweet spot !" 

Theorists long predicted that the great metropolis of 
the Mississippi valley — the granary of the world — must 
ultimately rise here. Many proved their faith by pecu- 
niary investments, which are likely to be permanent. 

Possessed by a similar delusion, Illinois, for years, 
strove to legislate Alton into a vast commercial mart. 
But, in spite of their unequaled geographical positions, 
Cairo and Alton still languish in obscurity, while St. 

10 



146 The Death of Douglas. . [isei. 

Louis and Cincinnati, twin queens of this imperial val- 
ley, succeed to their grand heritage. 

Nature settles these matters Iby laws which, though 
hidden, are inexorable. Even that mysterious, semi- 
civilized race, which swarmed in this valley centuries 
before the American Indian, established their great cen- 
ters of population where ours are to-day. 

June 4. 

Intelligence of the death of Senator Douglas, received 
last evening, excites profound and universal regret. 
Though totally unfamiliar with books, Mr. Douglas thor- 
oughly knew the masses of the Northwest, down to their 
minutest sympathies and prejudices. Beyond any of his 
cotemporaries, he was a man of the people, and the peo- 
j)le loved him. Never before could he have died so op- 
portunely for his posthumous fame. Nothing in his life 
became him like the leaving of it. His last speech, in 
Chicago, was a fervid, stirring appeal for the Union and 
the Government, and for crushing out treason with an 
iron hand. His emphatic loyalty exerted great influence 
in Illinois. His life-long opponents forget the asperities 
of the past, in the halo of patriotism around his setting 
sun, and unite, with those who always idolized him, in 
common tribute to his memory. 

We have very direct intelligence from Tennessee. 
The western districts are all Secession. Middle Ten- 
nessee is about equally divided. East Tennessee, a 
mountain region, containing few slaves, is inhabited by 
a hardy, primitive, industrious race. They are thor- 
oughly, enthusiastically loyal.* 

* Through, severest trials, and cruel neglect from our Government, 
they never swerved a hair's-breadth. Before our troops opened East 
Tennessee, enough left their homes, coming stealthily through the moun- 
tains and enUsting in the Union army, to make sixteen regiments. 



1861.] A Clear-He ADED Negro. 147 

The felicitous decision of Major-General Butler, tliat 
slaves of the enemy are "contraband of war," disturbs 
the Rebels not a little, even in the West. A friend just 
from Louisiana, relates an amusing conversation between 
a planter and an old, trusted slave. 

*'Sam," said his master, "I must furnish some nig- 
gers to go down and work on the fortifications at the 
;6alize. Which of the boys had I better send ?" 

''Well, massa," replied the old servant, shaking his 
head oracularly, "I doesn't know about dat. War's 
comin' on, and dey might be killed. Ought to get Irish- 
men to do dat work, anyhow. I reckon you' d better not 
send any ob de boys — tell you what, massa, nigger pro- 
perty' s mighty onsartin dese times !" 

Scores of fugitives from the South arrive here daily, 
with the old stories of insult, indignity, and. outrage. 
Several have come in with their heads shaved. To you, 
my reader, who have never seen a case of the kind, it 
may seem a trivial matter for a person merely to have 
one side of his head laid bare, but it is a peculiarly 
repulsive spectacle. The first time you look upon it, or 
on those worse cases, where free-born men of Saxon 
blood bear fresh marks of the lash, you will involun- 
tarily clinch your teeth, and thank Grod that the system 
which bears such infernal fruits is rushing upon its own 
destruction. 

Jhne 8. 

The heated term is upon us. We are amid upper, 
nether, and surrounding fires. At eight, this morning, 
the mercury indicated eighty degrees in the shade. How 
high it has gone since, I dare not conjecture ; but a friend 
insists that the sun will roast eggs to-day upon any door- 
step in town. I am a little incredulous as to that, though 
a pair of smarting, half -blistered hands — ^the result of a 



148 A Review op the Troops. [isei. 

ten minutes' walk in its devouring "breath — protest 
against absolute unbelief. Officers who served in tbe 
war with Mexico declare they never found the heat so 
oppressive in that climate as it is here. The raw troops 
on duty, who are sweltering in woolen shirts and cloth 
caps, bear it wonderfully well. 

A number of Chicago ladies are already here, acting 
as nurses in the hospital. The dull eyes of the invalids 
brighten at their approach, and voices grow husky in 
attempting to express their gratitude. According to Car- 
lyle, "in a revolution we are all savages still; civiliza- 
tion has only sharpened our claws;" but this tender 
care for the soldier is the one redeeming feature of mod- 
ern war. 

June 12. 

A review of all the troops. The double ranks of well- 
knit men, with shining muskets and bayonets, stretch 
off in perspective for more than a mile. After prelimi- 
nary evolutions, at the word of command, the lines sud- 
denly break and wheel into column by companies, and 
marching commences. You see two long parallel col- 
umns of men moving in opposite directions, with an 
open space between. Their legs, in motion, look for all 
the world like the shuttles in some great Lowell factory. 

The artillerists fire each of their six-pounders three 
times a minute. They discharge one, dismount it, lay it 
upon the ground, remove the wheels from the carriage, 
drop flat upon their faces, then spring up, remount the 
gun, ready for reloading or removing, all in forty-five 
seconds. 

Standing three hundred yards from the cannon, the 
column of smoke, white at first, but rapidly changing to 
blue, shoots out twenty-five or thirty feet from the muz- 
zle before you hear the report. 



1861.] A "Runnin' Nigger!" 149 

The flying flags, playing bands, galloping officers, long 
lines of our boys in blue, and sharp metallic reports, 
impress you with something of the pomp and circum- 
stance of glorious war. 

But Captain Jenny, a young engineer officer, quietly 
remarks, that he once witnessed a review of seventy 
thousand French troops in the Champ de Mars, and in 
1859 saw the army of seventy-five thousand men enter 
Paris, returning from the Italian wars. Colonel Wag- 
ner, an old Hungarian officer, who has participated in 
twenty-three engagements, assures you that he has 
looked upon a parade of one hundred and forty thou- 
sand men, whereupon our little force of five thousand 
appears insignificant. Nevertheless, it exceeds Jackson's 
recruits at New Orleans, and is larger than the effective 
force of Scott during the Mexican war. 

Our first contraband arrived here in a skiff last night, 
bearing unmistakable evidences of long travel. He says 
he came from. Mississippi, and the cotton-seed in his 
woolly head corroborates the statement. I first saw him 
beside the guard-house, surrounded by a party of sol- 
diers. He answered my salutation with " Good evenin', 
Mass'r," removing his old wool hat from his grizzly 
head. He smiled all over his face, and bowed all 
through his body, as he depressed his head, slightly 
lifting his left foot, with the gesture which only the un- 
mistakable darkey can give. 

" Well, uncle, have you joined the army ?" ; 

" Yes, mass'r" (with another African salaam). 

" Are you going to fight ?" 

"No, mass'r, I'se not a fightin' nigger, I'se a run- 
nin' nigger !" 

"Are you not afraid of starving, up here among the 
Abolitionists?" 



150 Capturing a Rebel Flag. [isei. 

" Keckon not, mass'r — not mncli." 

And Sambo gave a concluding Ibow, indescribable 
drollery shining through his sooty face, bisected by two 
rows of glittering iyory. 

June 13. 

A reconnoitering party went down the Mississippi 
yesterday upon a Government steamer, under command 
of Colonel Eichard J. Oglesby, colloquially known among 
the Illinois sovereigns of the prairie as "Dick Oglesby." 

Twenty miles below Cairo, we slowly passed the 
town of Columbus, Ky., on the highest bluffs of the 
Mississippi. The vUlage is a straggling collection of 
brick blocks, frame houses, and whisky saloons. It con- 
tains no Rebel forces, though seven thousand are at 
Union City, Tenn., twenty -five miles distant. 

On a taU staff, a few yards from the river, a great 
Secession flag, with its eight stars and three stripes, 
was triumphantly flying. 

Turning back, after steaming two miles below, the 
boat was stopped at the landing ; the captain went on 
shore, cut down the flag, and brought it on board, amid 
cheers from our troops. The Columbians looked on in 
grim silence — all save four Union ladies, who, 

" Faithful among the faithless only they," 

waved handkerchiefs joyfully from a neighboring bluff. 

Each star of the flag bore the name in pencil of 
the young lady who sewed it on. The Maggies, and 
Julias, and Sues, and Kates, and Sallies, who thus left 
their autographs upon their handiwork, did not antici- 
pate that it would so soon be scrutinized by Yankee 

soldiers. And, doubtless, " Julia K ," the damsel 

whose star I pilfered, scarcely aspired to the honor of 
furnishing a relic for TTie Tribune cabinet. 



1861.] The Retributions of Tbie. 151 



CHAPTER XI. 

And thus the whirligig of Time brings in his revenges. 

Twelfth Night, ob What Tott Wxli. 

Bloody instructions, which being taught, return 
To plague the inventors. — Macbeth. 

On" the IStli of June I returned from Cairo to St. 
Ijouis. Lyon liad gone up the Missouri River with an 
expedition, which was all fitted out and started in a few 
hours. Lyon was very much in earnest, and he knew the 
supreme value of time in the outset of a war. 

How just are the retributions of history ! Virginia 
originated State Rights run-mad, which culminated 
in Secession. Behold her ground between the upper 
and nether mill-stones ! Missouri lighted the fires of 
civil war in Kansas ; now they blazed with tenfold 
fury upon her own soil. She sent forth hordes to mob 
printing-presses, overawe the ballot-box, substitute the 
bowie-knife and revolver for the civil law. Now, her 
own area gleamed with bayonets ; the Rebel newspaper 
was suppressed by the file of soldiers, civil process sup- 
planted by the unpitying military arm. 

Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, in 1855, led a raid 
into Kansas, which overthrew the civil authorities, and 
drove citizens from the polls. 'Now, the poisoned chalice 
was commended to his own lips. A hunted fugitive 
from his home and his chair of ofiice, he was deserted 
by friends, ruined in fortune, and the halter waited for 
his neck. Thomas C. Reynolds, late Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, by advocating the right of Secession, did much to 
poison the public mind of the South. He, too, found 



152 A Railroad Reminiscence. [isei. 

Ms reward in disgrace and outlawry ; unable to come 
within tlie borders of the State wMch so lately delight- 
ed to do him honor ! 

I followed Lyon's Expedition by the Pacific railway. 
The president of the road told me a droll story, which 
illustrates the folly that governed the location of the rail- 
way S3" stem of Missouri. The Southwest Branch is 
about a hundred miles long, through a very thinly set- 
tled region. For the first week after the cars commenced 
running over it, they carried only about six passengers, 
and no freight except a live bear and a jar of honey. 
The honey was carried free, and the freight on Bruin 
was fifty cents. Shut up in the single freight car, during 
the trip, he ate all the honey ! The company were com- 
pelled to pay two dollars for the loss of that saccharine 
esculent. Thus their first week's profits on freight 
amounted to precisely one dollar and fifty cents on the 
wi'ong side of the ledger. 

The Rebels had now evacuated Jefferson City, and 
our own troops, commanded by Colonel Boernstein, a Grer- 
man editor, author, and theatrical manager, of St. Louis, 
were in peaceable possession. The soldiers were cooking 
upon the grass in the rear of the Capitol, standing in the 
shade of its portico and rotunda, lying on beds of hay in 
its passages, and upon carpets in the legislative halls. 
They reposed in all its rooms, from the subterranean 
vaults to the little circular chamber in the dome. 

Governor and Legislature were fled. With Colonel 
BcBrnstein, I went through the executive mansion, which 
had been deserted in hot haste. Sofas were overturned, 
carpets torn up and littered with letters and public 
documents. Tables, chairs, damask curtains, cigar- 
boxes, champagne-bottles, ink-stands, books, private 
letters, and family knick-knacks, were scattered every- 



1861.] Untainted with "B. Republicanism." 153 

where in chaotic confusion. Some of the Governor's cor- 
respondence was amusing. The first letter I noticed 
was a model of brevity. Here it is — its virgin paper 
unsullied by the faintest touch of " B. Republicanism." 

" Jeffeesoit City, fed. 21ncl 1861. 
*' to his Honour Gov. 0. F. Jackson. — Please Accept My Complin 
ments. "With a little good Old Bourbon Whisky Cocktail. Made up Ex- 
pressly in St Louis, fear it not. it is good. And besides it is not even 
tainted with B. Eepublicanism. Eespectfally yours, 

" P. Naughton." 

There was a ludicrous disparity between the evi- 
dences of sudden flight on all sides and the pompous 
language of the Governor' s latest State paper, which lay 
upon the piano in the drawing-room : 

" Now, therefore, I, C. F. Jackson, Governor of the State of Mis- 
souri, do issue this my proclamation, calling the militia of the State, to 
the number of fifty thottsand, into the service of the State. * * * 
Else, then, and drive out ignominiously the invaders I " 

Beds were unmade, dishes unwashed, silver forks 
and spoons, belonging to the State, scattered here and 
there. The only things that appeared undisturbed were 
the Star Spangled Banner and the national escutcheon, 
both frescoed upon the plaster of the gubernatorial bed- 
room. 

As we walked through the deserted rooms, a hollow 
echo answered to the tramp of the colonel and his lieu- 
tenant, and to the dull clank of their scabbards against 
the furniture. 

General Lyon opened the war in the West by the 
battle of Booneville. It lasted only a few minutes, and 
the undisciplined and half-armed Rebel troops, after a 
faint show of resistance, retreated toward the South. 
Lyon's command lost only eleven men. 



154 A Belligerent Chaplain. [isei. 

During tlie engagement, the Rev. William A. Pile, 
Chaplain of the First Missouri Infantry, with a detail of 
four men, was looking after the wounded, when, coming 
suddenly upon a party of twenty -four Rebels, he ordered 
them to surrender. Strangely enough, they laid down 
their arms, and were all brought, prisoners, to General 
Lyon's head-quarters by their five captors, headed by 
the reverend representative of the Church militant and 
the Church triumphant. 

Messrs. Thomas W. Knox and Lucien J. Barnes, 
army correspondents, zealous to see the first battle, 
narrowly escaped with their lives. Appearing upon a 
hill, surveying the conflict through their field-glasses, 
they were mistaken by General Lyon for scouts of the 
enemy. He ordered his sharpshooters to pick them off, 
when one of his aids recognized them. 

BocefETiLLE, Mo., June 21. 

The First Iowa Infantry has arrived here. On the 
way, several slaves, who came to its camp for refuge, 
were sent back to their masters. 

The regiment contains many educated men, and that 
large percentage of physicians, lawyers, and editors, 
found in every far- western community. On the way 
here, they indulged in a number of freaks which star- 
tled the natives. At Macon, Mo., they took posses- 
sion of The Register, a hot Secession sheet, and, having 
no less than forty printers in their ranks, promptly 
issued a spicy loyal journal, called Our Whole Union. 
The valedictory, which the Iowa boys addressed to Mr. 
Johnson, the fugitive editor, in his own paper, is worth 

perusing. 

" valedictory. 

"Johnson, wLerever you are — whether lurking in recesses of the 
dim woods, or fleeing a fugitive on open plain, under the broad canopy 



1861.] Humors 01* the Iowa Soldiers. 155 

of Heaven — good-by ! "We never saw your countenance — never expect 
to — never want to — but, for all that, we won't be proud ; so, Johnson, 
gOod-by, and take care of yourself! 

" We're going to leave you, Johnson, without so much as looking 
into your honest eyes, or clasping your manly hand — even without 
giving utterance, to your face, of 'God bless you!' We're right sorry, 
we are, that you didn't stay to attend to your domestic and other affairs, 
and not skulk away and lose yourself, never to return. Oh, Johnson! 
why did you — how could you do this ? 

"Johnson, we leave you to-night. "We're going where bullets are 
thick and mosquitos thicker. We may never return. If we do not, 
ojd boy, remember us. We sat at your table; we stole from your 
' Dictionary of Latin Quotations ;' we wrote Union articles with your 
pen, your ink, on your paper. We printed them on your press. Our 
boys set' em up with your types, used your galleys, your ' shoot- 
ing-sticks,' your 'chases,' your 'quads,' your 'spaces,' your 'rules,' 
your every thing. We even drank some poor whisky out of your 
bottle. 

"And now, Johnson, after doing all this for you, you won't forget 
us, will you? Keep us in mind. Eemember us in your evening prayers, 
and your morning prayers, too, when you say them, if you do say them. 
If you put up a petition at mid-day, don't forget us then ; or if you 
awake in the solemn stillness of the night, to implore a benison upon the 
absent, remember ils then ! 

" Once more, Johnson — our heart pains us to say it — that sorrow- 
ful word ! — but once more and forever, Johnson, Good-By ! If you 
come our way, Call! Johnson, adieu !" 

One of tlie privates in the regular army has just "been 
punished with fifty lashes on the bare "back, for taking 
from a private house a lady' s furs and a silk dress. 

This morning I passed a group of the Iowa privates, 
resting beside the road, along which they were bringing 
buckets of water to their camp. They were debating 
the question whether a heavy national debt tends to 
weaken or to strengthen a Government ! These are the 
men ivhom the southern Press caUs "ignorant merce- 
naries." 



156 Camp Tales of the Marvelous. [isei. 

St. Louis, July 12. 

The Missouri State Journal, wMch made no dis- 
guise of its sympathy with the Rebels, is at last sup- 
pressed by the military authorities. It was done to- 
day, by order of General Lyon, who is pursuing 
the Rebels near Springfield, in the southwest corner of 
the State. Secessionists denounce it as a military des- 
potism, but the loyal citizens are gratified. 

Are you fond of the marvelous? If so, here is a 
camp story about Colonel Sigel's late engagement at 
Carthage : 

A private in one of his companies (so runs the tale), 
while loading and firing, was lying flat upon his face 
to avoid the balls of the Rebels, when a shot from one 
of their six-pounders plunged into the ground right be- 
side him, plowed through under him, about six inches 
below the surface, came out on the other side, and pur- 
sued its winding way. It did not hurt a hair of his 
head, but, in something less than a twinkling of an eye, 
whirled him over upon his back ! 

If you shake your head, save your incredulity for 
tJiis : A captain assures me that in the same battle he 
saw one of Sigel's artillerists struck by a shot which 
cut off both legs; but that he promptly raised him- 
self half up, rammed the charge home in his gun, with- 
drew the ramrod, and then fell back, dead ! This is, 
at least, melo-dramatic, and only paralleled by the bal- 
lad-hero 

" Of doleful dumps, 



Who, when his legs were both cut ofl^ 
Still fought upon his stumps." 



1851.] Corn not Cotton is King. 157 



CHAPTER XII. 

"Who can be * * * ♦ • 

Loyal and neutral in a, moment ? No man. 

Macbsto. 

Why, this it is when men are ruled by women. 

KiCHAKD III. 

It was a relief to escape the excitement and bitterness 
of Missouri, and spend a few quiet days in the free 
States. Despite Rebel predictions, grass did not grow 
in the streets of Chicago. In sooth, it wore neither 
an Arcadian nor a funereal aspect. Palatial buildings 
were everywhere rising ; sixty railway trains arrived 
and departed daily ; hotels were crowded with Quests ; 
and the voice of the artisan was heard in the land. 
Michigan Avenue, the jBnest drive in America, skirt- 
ing the lake shore for a mile and a half, was crowded 
every evening with swift vehicles, and its sidewalks 
thronged with leisurely pedestrians. It afforded scope 
to one of the two leading characteristics of Chicago resi- 
dents, which are, holding the ribbons and leaving out 
the latch- string. 

I did not hear a single cry of " Bread or Blood !" As 
the city had over two million bushels of corn in store, 
and had received eighteen million bushels of grain 
during the previous six months, starvation was hardly 
imminent. War or peace, currency or no currency, 
breadstuffs will find a market. Corn, not cotton, is 
king; the great !N"orthwest, instead of Dixie Land, 
wields the sceptre of imperial power. 

The elasticity of the new States is wonderful. Wis- 
consin and lUinois had lost about ten millions of dollars 



158 Curious PtEMiNiscENCES of Chicago. [issi. 

througli the depreciation of their currency within a few 
months. It caused emlDarrassment and stringency, l3ut 
no wreck or ruin. " 

Reminiscences of the financial chaos were entertain- 
ing. New York exchange once reached thirty per cent. 
The Illinois Central E-ailroad Company paid twenty-two 
thousand five hundred dollars premium on a single draft. 
For a few weeks before the crash, everybody was afraid 
of the currency, and yet everybody received it. People 
were seized with a sudden desire to pay up. The 
course of nature was reversed ; debtors absolutely 
pursued their creditors, and creditors dodged them as. 
swindlers dodge the sheriff. Parsimonious husbands 
supplied their wives bounteously with means to do fam- 
ily shopping for months ahead. There was a "run" 
upon those feminine paradises, the dry-goods stores, 
while the merchants were by no means anxious to sell. 

Suddenly prices went up, as if by magic, Tlien came 
a grand crisis. Currency dropped fifty per cent., and 
one morning the city woke up to find itself poorer by 
just- half than it was the night before. The banks, with 
their usual feline sagacity, alighted upon their feet, while 
depositors had to stand the loss. 

Persons who settled in Chicago when it was only a 
military post, many hundred miles in the Indian country, 
relate stories of the days when they sometimes spent 
three months on schooners coming from Buffalo. Later 
settlers, too, offer curious reminiscences. In 1855, a mer- 
chant purchased a tract of unimproved land near the 
lake, outside the city limits, for twelve hundred dollars, 
one-fourth in cash. Before his next payment, a railroad 
traversed one sandy worthless corner of it, and the com- 
pany paid him damages to the amount of eleven hun- 
dred dollars. Before the end of the third year, when 



1861.] Visit to the Grave of Douglas. 159 

his last instaUment of three hundred dollars "became 
due, he sold the land to a company of speculators for 
twentj-one thousand five hundred dollars. It is now 
assessed at something over one hundred thousand. 

On a July day, so cold that fires were comforting 
within doors, and overcoats and buffalo robes requisite 
without, I visited the grave of Senator Douglas, un- 
marked as yet by monumental stone. He rests near 
his old home, and a few yards from the lake, which was 
sobbing and moaning in stormy passion as the great, 
white-fringed waves chased each other upon the sandy 
shore. 

With the arrival of each railway train from the east, 
long files of immigrants from Norway and northern 
Germany came pouring up Dearborn street, gazing cu- 
riously and hopefully at their new Land of Promise. 
One of the many railroad lines had brought twenty-five 
hundred within two weeks. There were gr::y-haired 
men and young children. All were attired neatly, es- 
pecially the women, with snow-white kerchiefs about 
their heads. 

They were bound, mainly, for Wisconsin and Minne- 
sota. Men and women are the best wealth of a new 
country. Though nearly all poor, these brought, with 
the fair hair and blue eyes of their fatherland, honesty, 
frugality, and industry, as their contribution to that 
great crucible which, after all its strange elements are 
fused, shall pour forth the pure and shining metal of 
American Character. 

Missouri, at the commencement of the war, had two 
hundred thousand Germans in a population of little 
more than one million. Almost to a man, they were 
loyal, and among the first who sprang to arms. 

In the South, they were always regarded with sus- 



160 Social Habits of the Germans. [isei. 

picion. The Rebels succeeded in dragooning Ibut very- 
few of them into their ranks. Honor to the loyal Ger- 
mans ! 

According to some unknown philosopher, "an Eng- 
lishman or a Yankee is capital ; an Irishman is lahor ; 
l)ut a German is capital and lahor hoth." Cincinnati, at 
the outbreak of the Rebellion, contained about seventy 
thousand German citizens, who for many years had con- 
tributed largely to her growth and prosperity. 

A visit to their distinctive locality, called "Over the 
Rhine," with its German daily papers, German signs, 
and German conversation, is a peep at Faderland. 

Cincinnati is nearer than Hamburg, the Miami canal 
more readily crossed than the Atlantic, and that ' ' sweet 
German accent," with which General Scott was once 
enraptured, is no less musical in the Queen City than in 
the land of Schiller and Goethe. Why, then, should one 
go to Germany, unless, indeed, like Bayard Taylor, he 
goes for a wife ? The multitudinous maidens — ^light-eyed 
and blonde-haired — in these German streets, would seem 
to remove even that excuse. 

Wlien Young America becomes jovial, he takes four 
or five boon companions to a drinking saloon, pours 
down half a glass of raw brandy, and lights a cigar. 
Continuing this programme through the day, he ends, 
perhaps, by being carried home on a shutter or con- 
ducted to the watch-house. 

But the German, at the close of the summer day, 
strolls with his wife and two or three of his twelve 
children (the orthodox number in well-regulated Teu- 
tonic families) to one of the great airy halls or gardens 
abounding in his portion of the city. Calling for Rhein 
wine, Catawba, or " zwei glass lager hier und zweipret- 
ee?," they sit an hour or two, chatting with friends, and 



1861.] The Early Days of Cincinnati. 161 

then return to their homes like rational beings after 
rational enjojonent. The halls contain hundreds of 
people, who gesticulate more and talk louder during 
their mildest social intercourse than the same number of 
Americans would in an affray causing the murder of 
half the company ; hut the presence of women and 
children guarantees decorous language and deportment. 

The laws of migration are curious. One is, that 
people ordinarily go due west. The Massachusetts man 
goes to northern Ohio, Wisconsin, or Minnesota ; the 
Ohioan to Kansas ; the Tennesseean to' southern Mis- 
souri ; the Mississippian to Texas. Great excitements, 
like those of Kansas and California, draw men off their 
parallel of latitude ; hut this is the general law. An- 
other is, that the Irish remain near the sea-coast, while 
the Germans seek the interior. They constitute four- 
fifths of the foreign population of every western city. 

In 1788, a few months before the first settlement of 
Cincinnati, seven hundred and forty acres of land were 
bought for five hundred dollars. The tract is now the 
heart of the city, and appraised at many millions. As it 
passed from liand to hand, colossal fortunes were reali- 
zed from it ; but its original purchaser, then one of the 
largest western land-owners, at his death did not leave 
property enough to secure against want his surviving 
son. Until 1862, that son resided in Cincinnati, a pen- 
sioner upon the bounty of relatives. As, in the autumn 
of life, he walked the streets of that busy city, it must 
have been a strange reflection that among all its broad 
acres of which his father Avas sole proprietor, he did not 
own land enough for his last resting-place. " Give him 
a littler earth for charity I" 

iNlany high artificial mounds, circular and elliptical, 

stood here when the city was founded. In after years, 
11 



162 A City Founded by a Woman. [isei. 

as they were leveled, one "by one, tliey revealed relics 
of tliat ancient and comparatively civilized race, wliicli 
occupied this region "before the Indian, and was probahly 
identical with the Aztecs of Mexico. 

Upon the site of one of these mounds is Pike's Opera 
House, a gorgeous edifice, erected at an expense of half 
a million of dollars, by a Cincinnati distiller, who, fifteen 
years before, could not obtain credit for his first dray- 
load of whisky-barrels. It is one of the finest theaters in 
the world ; but the site has more interest than the build- 
ing. What volumes of unwritten history has that spot 
witnessed, which supports a temple of art and fashion 
for the men and women of to-day, was once a post from 
which Indian sentinels overlooked the " dark and 
bloody ground" beyond the river, and, in earlier ages, 
an altar where priests of a semi-barbaric race performed 
mystic rites to propitiate heathen gods ! 

Cincinnati was built by a woman. Its founder was 
neither carpenter nor speculator, but in the legitimate 
feminine pursuit of winning hearts. Seventy years ago, 
Columbia, North Bend, and Cincinnati — all splendid 
cities on paper — ^were rivals, each aspiring to be the 
metropolis of the West. Columbia was largest, l!^orth 
Bend most favorably located, and Cincinnati least prom- 
ising of all. 

But an army oflBicer, sent out to establish a military 
post for protecting frontier settlers against Indians, was 
searching for a site. Fascinated by the charms of a 
dark-eyed beauty — wife of one of the North Bend 
settlers — ^that location impressed him favorably, and he 
made it head-quarters. The husband, disliking the 
officer's pointed attentions, came to Cincinnati and set- 
tled — thus, he supposed, removing his wife from tempta- 
tion. 



1861.] The Aspirations of the Cincinnatian. 163 

But as Mark Antony threw the world away for Cleo- 
patra's lips, this humbler son of Mars counted the 
military advantages of IS'orth Bend as nothing compared 
with his charmer's eyes. He promptly followed to Cin- 
cinnati, and erected Fort Washington Avithin the present 
city limits. Proximity to a military post settled the 
question, as it has all similar ones in the history of the 
West. ISTow Cincinnati is the largest inland city upon 
the continent ; Columbia is an insignificant village, and 
North Bend an excellent farm. 

In architecture, Cincinnati is superior to its western 
rivals, and rapidly gaining upon the most beautiful 
seaboard cities. Some of its squares are unexcelled in 
America. A few public buildings are imposing ; but its 
best structures have been erected by private enterprise. 
The Cincinnatian is expansive. Narrow quarters tor- 
ture him. He can live in a cottage, but he must do 
business in a palace. An inferior brick building is the 
specter of his life, and a freestone block his undying 
ambition. 

From the Queen City I went to Louisville. Though 
communication with the South had been cut off by every 
other route, the railroad was open thence to Nashville. 

Kentucky was disputed ground. Treason and Loy- 
alty jostled each other in strange proximity. At the 
breakfast table, one looked up from his* New York 
paper, forty-eight hours old, to see his nearest neigh- 
bor perusing The Charleston Mercury. He found Tlie 
Louismlle CoicHer urging the people to take up arms 
against the Government. T7ie Journal^ published just 
across the street, advised Union men to arm themselves, 
and announced that any of them wanting first-class re- 
volvers could learn something to their advantage by 
calling upon its editor. In the telegraph-ofiice, tha 



164 Treason and Loyalty in Louisville. [isgi. 

loyal agent of the Associated Press, wlio made up dis- 
patches for the North, chatted with the Secessionist, 
who spiced his news for the southern palate. On the 
street, one heard Union men advocate the hanging of 
Governor Magoffin, and declare that he and his fellow- 
traitors should find the collision they threatened a bloody 
business. At the same moment, some inebriated " Cava- 
lier" reeled by, shouting uproariously "Huzza for Jeff. 
Davis 1" 

Here, a group of pale, long-haired young men was 
pointed out as enlisted Rebel soldiers, just leaving for 
the South. There, a troop of the sinewy, long-limbed 
mountaineers of Kentucky and East Tennessee, marched 
sturdily toward the river, to join the loyal forces upon 
the Indiana shore. Two or three State Guards (Seces- 
sion), with muskets on their shoulders, were closely 
followed by a trio of Home Guards (Union), also aniied. 
It was wonderful that, with all tliese crowding combus- 
tibles, no explosion had yet occurred in the Kentucky 
powder-magazine. 

While Secessionists were numerous, Louisville, at 
heart loyal, everywhere displayed the national flag. 
Yet, although the people tore to pieces a Secession 
banner, which floated from a private dwelling, they 
were very tolerant toward thp Rebels, who openly re- 
cruited for the Southern service. Imagine a man 
huzzaing for President Lincoln and advertising a Fed- 
eral recruiting- office in any city controlled by the Con- 
federates ! 

"The real governor of Kentucky," said a southern 
paper, "is not Beriah Magoffin, but George J). Prentice." 
In spite of his "neutrality," which for a time tlireat- 
ened to stretch out to the crack of doom, Mr. Prentice 
was a thorn in the side of the enemy. His strong in- 



1861.] Prentice of the Louisville Journal. 165 

fluence, thro ugh The Louismlle Journal, was felt through- 
out the State. 

Visiting his editorial rooms, I found him over an 
appalling pile of public and private documents, dictating 
an article for his paper. Many years ago, an attack of 
paralj^sis nearly disabled his right hand, and compelled 
him ever after to employ an amanuensis. 

His small, round face was fringed with dark hair, a 
little silvered by age ; but his eyes gleamed with their 
early fire, and his conversation scintillated with that 
ready wit which made him the most famous jDaragraph- 
ist in the world. His manner was exceedingly quiet 
and modest. For about three-fourths of the year, he 
was one of the hardest workers in the country ; often 
sitting at his table twelve hours a day, and writing two 
or three columns for a morning issue. 

At this time, the Kentucky Unionists, advocating 
only "neutrality," dared not urge open and uncompro- 
mising support of the Government, When President 
Lincoln first called for troops, The Journal denounced 
his appeal in terms almost worthy of TJie Charleston 
Mercury, expressing its "mingled amazement and in- 
dignation." Of course the Kentuckians were subjected 
to very bitter criticism. Mr. Prentice said to me : 

"You misapprehend us in the North. We are just 
as much for the Union as you are. Those of us who 
pray, praj' for it ; those of us who fight, are going to 
fight for it. But we know our own people. They re- 
quire very tender handling. Just trust us and let us 
alone, and you shall see us come out all right by-and- 
by." 

Tlie State election, held a few weeks after, exposed 
the groundless alarm of the leading politicians. It re- 
sulted in returning to Congress, from every district but 



166 First Union Troops of Kentucky. [isei. 

one, zealous Union men. Afterward the State fur- 
nished troops whenever they were called for, and, in 
spite of her timid leaders, finally yielded gracefully to 
the inexorable decree of the war, touching her pet in- 
stitution of Slavery. 

I paid a visit to the encampment of the Kentucky 
Union troops, on the Indiana side of the Ohio, opposite 
Louisville. "Camp Joe Holt" was on a high, grassy 
plateau. Unfailing springs supplied it with pure water, 
and tree's of beech, oak, elm, ash, maple, and sycamore, 
overhung it with grateful shade. The prospective 
soldiers were lying about on the ground, or reading 
aud writing in their tents. 

General Rousseau, who was sitting upon the grass, 
chatting with a visitor, looked the Kentuckian. Large 
head, with straight, dark hair and mustache ; eye and 
mouth fall of determination ; broad chest, huge, erect, 
manly frame. 

His men were sinewy fellows, with serious, earnest 
faces. Most of them were from the mountain districts. 
Many had been hunters from boyhood, and could bring 
a squirrel from the tallest tree with their old rifles. 
Byron's description of their ancestral backwoodsmen 
seemed to tit them exactly : 

" And tall and strong and swift of foot were thej, 

Beyond the dwarfing city's pale abortions, 

Because their thoughts had never been the prey 

Of care or gain ; the green woods were their portions. 
Simple they were, not savage ; and their rifles. 
Though very true, were yet not used for trifles." 

The history of this brigade was characteristic of the 
times. Rousseau scouted "neutrality" from the outset. 
On the 21st of May, he said from his place in the Ken- 
tucky Senate : 



1861.] Struggle in the Kentucky Legislature. 167 

"If we have a Government, let it be maintained and obeyed. If a 
factious minority undertakes to override the will of the majority and 
rob us of our constitutional rights, let it be put down — peaceably if we 
can, but forcibly if we must. * * * Let me tell you, sir, Kentucky will 
not 'go out!' She will not stampede. Secessionists must invent 
something new, before they can either frighten or drag her out of the 
Union. We shall be but too happy to keep peace, but we cannot leave 
the Union of our fathers. When Kentucky goes down, it will be in 
blood! Let that be imderstood." 

In that Legislature, the struggle between the Seces- 
sionists and the Loyalists was fierce, protracted, and 
uncertain. Each day had its accidents, incidents, 
telegraphic and newspaper excitements, upon which the 
action of the body seemed to depend. 

In firm and determined men, the two parties were 
about equally divided ; but there were a good many 
"floats," who held the balance of power. These men 
were yery tenderly nursed by the Loyalists. 

The Secessionists frequently proposed to go into 
secret session, but the Union men steadfastly refused. 
Rousseau declared in the Senate that if they closed the 
doors he would break them open. As he stands about 
six feet two, and is very muscular, the threat had some 
significance. 

Buckner, Tighlman, and Hanson '^— all afterward gen- 
erals in the Rebel army— led the Secessionists. They 

* The leniency of the Government toward these men was remark- 
able. For many months after the war began, Breckinridge, in the United 
States Senate, and Burnett, in the House of Representatives, uttered 
defiant treason, for which they were not only pardoned, but paid by the 
Government they were attempting to overthrow. As late as August, 
1861, after Bull Run, after Wilson Creek, Buckner visited Washington, 
was allowed to inspect the fortifications, and went almost directly thence 
to Richmond. When he next returned to Kentucky, it was at the head 
of an invading Rebel army. 



168 What Rebel Leaders Pretended. [isci. 

professed to Ibe loyal, and were very shrewd and plau- 
sible. They induced hundreds of young men to join the 
State-Guard, which they were organizing to force Ken- 
tucky out of the Union, though its ostensible object was 
to assure "neutrality." 

"State Rights" was their watchword. "For Ken- 
tucky neutrality," first; and, should the conflict be 
forced upon them, "For the South against the North." 
They worked artfully upon the southern partiality for 
the doctrine that allegiance is due first to the State, 
and only secondly to the N'ational Goyernment. 

Governor Magoffin and Lieutenant-Governor Porter 
were bitter Rebels. The Legislature made a heavy ap- 
propriation for arming the State, but practically dis- 
placed the Governor, by appointing five loyal commis- 
sioners to control the fund and its expenditure. 

In Louisville, the Unionists secretly organized the 
"Loyal League," which became very large ; but the Se- 
cessionists, also, were noisy and numerous, firm and 
defiant. 

On the 5th of June, Rousseau started for Washington, 
to obtain authority to raise troops in Kentucky. At Cin- 
cinnati, he met Colonel Thomas J. Key, then Judge-Ad- 
vocate of Ohio, on duty with General McClellan. Key 
was alarmed, and asked if it were not better to keep 
Kentucky in the Union by voting, than by fighting. 
Rousseau replied : 

" As fast as we take one vote, and settle the matter, 
another, in some form, is proposed. While we are vo- 
ting, the traitors are enlisting soldiers, preparing to 
throttle Kentucky and precipitate her into Revolution 
as they have the other southern States. It is our duty 
to see that we are not left powerless at the mercy of 
those who will butcher us whenever they can." 



1861.] Rousseau's Visit to Washington. 169 

Key declared that lie would ruin every thing by his 
rashness. By invitation, Rousseau called on the com- 
mander of the Western Department. During the con- 
versation, McClellan remarked that Buckner had spent 
the previous night with him. Rousseau replied that 
Buckner was a hypocrite and traitor. McClellan re- 
joined that he thought him an honorable gentleman. 
They had served in Mexico together, and were old per- 
sonal friends. 

He added: "But I did draw him over the coals for 
saying he would not only drive the Rebels out of Ken- 
tucky, but also the Federal troops." 

"Well, sir," said Rousseau, "it would once have 
been considered pretty nearly treason for a citizen to 
fight the United States army and levy war against the 
National Goverliment !" 

When Rousseau reached Washington, he found that 
Colonel Key, who had frankly announced his determina- 
tion to oppose his project, was already there. He had 
an interview with the President, General Cameron, and 
Mr. Seward. The weather was very hot, and Cameron 
eat with his coat off during the conversation. 

As usual, before proceeding to business, Mr. Lincoln 
had his "little story" to enjoy. He shook hands cor- 
dially with his visitor, and asked, in great glee : 

" Rousseau, where did you get that joke about Sena- 
tor Johnson?" 

"The joke, Mr. President, was too good to keep. 
Johnson told it himself." 

It w^s this : Dr. John M. Johnson, senator from 
Paducah, ^vi'ote to Mr. Lincoln a rhetorical document, in 
the usual style of the Rebels. In behalf of the sovereign 
State, he entered his solemn and emphatic protest against 
the planting of cannon at Cairo, declaring that the guns 



170 His Interview with President Lincoln. [isei. 

actually pointed in the direction of the sacred soil of 
Kentucky ! 

In an exquisitely pithy autograph letter, Mr, Lincoln 
replied, if he had known earlier that Cairo, Illinois, was 
in Dr. Johnson's Kentucky Senatorial District, he cer- 
tainly should not have established either the guns or the 
troops there ! Singularly enough — for a keen sense of 
humor was very rare among our "erring brethren"- — 
Johnson appreciated the joke. 

While Rousseau was urging the necessity of enlisting 
troops, he remarked : 

"I have half pretended to submit to Kentucky neu- 
trality, but, in discussing the matter before the people, 
while apparently standing upon the line, I have almost 
always ^o^ecZ." 

This word was not in the Cabinet vocabulary. Gen- 
eral Cameron looked inquiringly at Mr. Lincoln, who was 
supposed to be familiar with the dialect of his native 
State. 

"General," asked the President, "you don't know 
what 'poke' means? Why, when you play marbles, 
you are required to shoot from a mark on the ground ; 
and when you reach over with your hand, beyond the 
line, that is j?:>oA'm^ .^" 

Cameron favored enlistments in Kentucky, without 
delay. Mr. Lincoln replied : 

"General, don't be too hasty; you know we have 
seen another man to-day, and we should act with cau- 
tion." Rousseau explained : 

" The masses in Kentucky are loyal. I can get as many 
soldiers as are wanted ; but if the Rebels raise troops, 
while we do not, our young men will go into their army, 
taking t^e sympathies of kindred and friends, and may 
finally cause the State to secede. It is of vital impor- 



1861.] Timidity of Kentucky Unionists. 171 

tance that we give loyal direction to the sentiment of our 
people." 

At the next interview, the President showed him this 
indorsement on the l)ack of one of his papers : 

"When Judge Pirtle, James Gu rie, George D. Prentice, Harney, 
the Speeds, and the Ballards shall think it proper to raise troops for the 
United States service in Kentucky, Lovell H, Eousseau is authorized to 
do so." 

" How will that do, Rousseau ?" 

"Those are good men, Mr. President, loyal men; "but 
perhaps some of the rest of us, who were born and 
reared in Kentucky, are just as good Union men as they 
are, and know just as much about the State. If you 
want troops, I can raise them, and I will raise them. If 
you do not want them, or do not want to give me the 
authority, why that ends the matter." 

Finally, through the assistance of Mr. Chase, who 
steadfastly favored the project, and of Secretary Cameron, 
the authority was given. 

A few Kentucky Loyalists were firm and outspoken. 
But General Leslie Coombs was a good specimen of the 
whole. When asked for a letter to Mr. Lincoln, he 
wrote: "Rousseau is loyal and brave, but a little too 
much for coercion for these parts." 

After Rousseau returned, with permission to raise 
twenty companies, Tlie Louisville Courier^ whose veneer 
of loyalty was very thin, denounced the efibrt bitterly. 
Even Tlie Louisville Journal derided it until half a 
regiment was in camp. 

A meeting of leading Loyalists of the State was held 
in Louisville, at the office of James Speed, since At- 
torney General of the United States. Garrett Davis, 
Bramlette, Boyle, and most of the Louisville men, 



172 Loyalty of Judge Lusk. [isei. 

were against the project. Tliey feared it would give 
the State to the Secessionists at the approaching elec- 
tion. Speed and the Ballards were for it. So was 
Samuel Lusk, an old judge from Garrard County, who 
sat quietly as long as he could during the discussion, 
then jumped up, and bringing his hand heavily down 
on the table, exclaimed : 

' ' Can' t have two regiments for the old flag ! By ! 

sir, he shall have thirty !" 

A resolution was finally adopted that, when the time 
came, they all wished Rousseau to raise and command 
the troops, but that, for the present, it would be impol- 
itic and improper to commence enlisting in Kentucky. 

Greatly against his own will, and declaring that he 
never was so humiliated in his life, Rousseau established 
his camp on the Indiana shore. After the election, some 
Secession sympathizers, learning that he proposed to 
bring his men over to Louisville, protested very earn- 
estly, begging him to desist, and thus avoid bloodshed, 
which they declared certain. 

"Gentlemen," said he, "my men, like yourselves, 
are Kentuckians, I am a Kentuckian. Our homes are 
on Kentucky soil. We have organized in defense of our 
common country ; and bloodshed is just the business 
we are drilling for. If anybody in the city of Louis- 
ville thinks it judicious to begin it when we arrive, I 
tell you, before God, you shall all have enough of it 
before you get through !" 

The next day he marched his brigade unmolested 
through the city. Afterward, upon many battle-fields, 
its honorable fame and Rousseau's two stars were fairly 
won and worthily worn. 



1861.] Campaigning in the Kanawha Valley. 173 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The hum of either army stilly sounds, 
That the fixed sentinels almost receive 
The secret whispers of each other's watch. 

Kt»a SflMKif V. 

I SPENT the last days of July, in Western Virginia, 
with the command of General J. D. Cox, -VYhich was 
pursuing Henry A. Wise in hot haste up the valley of the 
Kanawha. There had been a few little skirmishes, 
which, in those early days, we were wont to call battles. 

Like all mountain regions, the Kanawha valley was 
extremely loyal. Flags were flying, and the people 
manifested intense delight at the approach of our army. 
We were very close upon the flying enemy ; indeed, 
more than once our cavalry boys ate hot breakfasts 
which the Rebels had cooked for themselves. 

At a farm-house, two miles west of Charleston, a 
dozen natives were sitting upon the door- step as our 
column passed. The farmer shook hands with us very 
cordially. ^'1 am glad to see the Federal army," said 
he ; "I hate been hunted like a dog, and compelled to 
hide in the mountains, because I loved the Union." His 
wife exclaimed, "Thank God, you have come at last, 
and the day of our deliverance is here. I always said 
that the Lord was on our side, and that he would bring 
us through safely." 

Two of the women were ardent Rebels. They did 
not blame the native-born Yankees, but wished that 
every southerner in our ranks might be killed. Just 
then one of our soldiers, whose home was in that 
county, passed by the door- step, on his way to the well 



174 A Bloodthirsty Female Secessionist. [isei. 

for a canteen of water. One of the women said to me, 
with eyes that meant it : 

" I hope lie will be killed ! If I had a pistol I would 
shoot him. Why ! you have a revolver right here in 
your belt, haven't you ? If I seen it before, I would 
have used it upon him !" 

Suggesting that I might have interfered with such 
an attempt, I asked : 

" Do you think you could hit him ?" 

'' O, yes ! I have been practicing lately for just such 
a purpose." 

Her companion assured me that she prayed every 
night and morning for Jefferson Davis. If his armies 
were driven out of Virginia, she would go and live in 
one of the Grulf States. She had a brother and a lover 
in General Wise's army, and gave us their names, 
with a very earnest request to see them kindly treated, 
should they be taken prisoners. When we parted, she 
shook my hand, with: " AVell, I hope no harm will 
befall you, if you are an Abolitionist !" 

An old citizen, who had been imprisoned for Union 
sentiments, was overcome with joy at the sight of our 
troops. He mounted a great rock by the roadside, and 
extemporized a speech, in which thanks to the Union 
army and the Lord curiously intermingled. 

Women, with tears in their eyes, told us how anx- 
iously they had waited for the flag ; how their houses 
had been robbed, their husbands hunted, imprisoned, 
and impressed. IS]"egroes joined extravagantly in the 
huzzaing, swinging flags as a woodman swings his ax, 
bending themselves almost double with shouts of 
laughter, and exclamations of "Hurrah for Mass'r 
Lincoln !" 

Thirteen miles above Charleston, at the head of navi- 



1861.] A Woman in Disguise. 175 

gation, we left behind what we grandiloquently called 
'• the fleet." It consisted of exactly four little stern- 
wheel steamboats. 

The people of these mountain regions use the old 
currency of 'New England, and talk of "fourpence 
ha'pennies" and "ninepences." 

Our road continued along the riyer-bank, where the 
ranges of overhanging hills began to break into regular, 
densely timbered, pyramidal spurs. The weather was 
very sultry. How the sun smote us* in that close, nar- 
row valley ! The accouterments of each soldier weighed 
about thirty pounds, and made a day' s march of twenty 
miles an arduous task. 

A private who had served in the First Kentucky 
Infantry"* for three months, proved to be of the wrong 
sex. She performed camp duties with great fortitude, 
and never fell out of the ranks during the severest 
marches. She was small in stature, and kept her coat 
buttoned to her chin. She first excited suspicion by her 
feminine method of putting on her stockings ; and when 
handed over to the surgeon proved to be a woman, 
about twenty years old. She was discharged from the 
regiment, but sent to Columbus upon suspicion, excited 
by some of her remarks, that she was a spy of the 
Rebels. 

At Cannelton, a hundred slaves were employed in the 
coal-oil works— two" long, begrimed, dilapidated build- 
ings, with a few wretched houses hard by. Nobody 
was visible, except the negroes. When I asked one 
of them — "Where are all the white people ?" he replied, 
with a broad grin — 

"Done gone, mass'r." 

* So called, thougli nearly all its members came from Cincinnati. 



176 Extravagant Joy of the Negroes. [isei. 

A Iblack woman, whom we encountered on the road, 
was asked : 

*' Haye you run away from your master ?" 

"Grolly, no!" was the prompt answer, "mass'r run 
away from me/" 

The slares, who always heard the term "runaway" 
applied only to their own race, were not aware that it 
could haye any other significance. After the war opened, 
its larger meaning suddenly dawned upon them. The 
idea of the master running away and the negroes stay- 
ing, was always to them ludicrous heyond description. 
The extravagant lines of "Kingdom Coming," exactly 
depicted their feelings : 

Say, darkies, hab you seen de mass'r, 

Wid de muffstacli on his face, 
Go 'long de road some time dis mornin', 

Like lie's gwine to leave de place? 
He seen de smoke way up de ribber 

Where de Linkum gunboats lay: 
He took his hat and left berry sudden, 
And I 'spose he runned away. 
De mass'r run, ha! ha I 

De darkey stay, ho! hoi 
It must be now de kingdom comin', 
An' de year ob Jubilo. 

"Dey tole us," said a group of hlacks, "dat if your 
army cotched us, you would cut off our right feet. But, 
Lor I we knowed you wouldn't hurt us .^" 

At a house where we dined, the planter assuming 
to he loyal, one of our officers grew confidential with 
him, when a negro woman managed to "beckon me into 
a hack room, and seizing my arm, yery earnestly said : 
"I tell you, mass'r's only just putting on. He hates 
you all, and wants to see you killed. Soon as you 



1861.] How THE Soldiers Foraged. 177 

have passed, he will send right to Wise's army, and 
tell him what you mean to do; if any of you'uns re- 
main here behind the troops, you will he in danger. 
He's in a heap of trouble," she added, "but, Lord, 
dese times just suits me/" 

At another house, while the Rebel host had stepped 
out for a moment, an intelligent young colored woman, 
with an infant in her arms, stationed two negro girls at 
the door to watch for his return, and interrogated me 
about the progress and purposes of the War. "Is it 
true," she inquired, very sadly, "that your army has* 
been hunting and returning runaway slaves ?" 

Thanks to General Cox, who, like the sentinel in 
Rolla, "knew his duty better," I could reply in the 
negative. But when, with earnestness gleaming in her 
eyes, she asked, if, through these convulsions, any hope 
glimmered for her race, what could I tell her but to be 
patient, and trust in God ? 

Army rations are not inviting to epicurean tastes ; 
but in the field all sorts of vegetables and poultry were 
added to our bill of fare. Chickens, young pigs, fence- 
rails, apples, and potatoes, are legitimate army spoils the 
world over. 

"Where did you get that turkey?" asked a captain 
of one of his men. "Bought it, sir," was the prompt 
answer. "For how much?" "Seventy-five cents." 
"Paid for it, did you?" "Well, no, sir; told the man 
I would pay when we came hacJcP^ 

"Mass'r," said a little ebony servant to a captain 
with whom I was messing, "I sees a mighty fine goose. 
Wish we had him for supper." 

"Ginger," replied the officer, "have I not often told 
you that it is very wicked to steal 1" 

The little negro laughed all over his face, and fell out 

12 



178 The Falls of the Kanawha. [issi. 

of the ranks. By a "coincidence," worthy of Sam 
Waller, we supped on stewed goose that very evening. 

Seen by night from the adjacent hiUs, our pictu- 
resque encampments gave to the wild landscape a new 
beauty. In the deep valleys gleamed hundreds of 
snowy tents, lighted by waning camp-fires, round which 
grotesque figures flitted. The faint murmur of voices, 
and the ghostly sweetness of distant music, filled the 
summer air. 

At the Falls cf the Kanawha the river is half a mile 
wide. A natural dam of rocks, a hundred yards in 
breadth, and, on its lower side, thirty feet above the 
water, extends obliquely across the stream — a smooth 
surface of gray rock, spotted with brown moss. 

N'ear the south bank is the main fall, in the form of 
a half circle, three or four hundred yards long, with a 
broken descent of thirty feet. Above the brink, the 
water is dark, green, and glassy, but at the verge it 
looks half transparent, as it tumbles and foams down 
the rocks, lashed into a passion of snowy whiteness. 
Plunging into the seething caldron, it throws up great 
jets and sheets of foam. Above, the calm, shining 
water extends for a mile, until hidden by a sudden bend 
in the channel. The view is bounded by a tall spur, 
wrapped in the sober green of the forest, with an ad- 
venturous corn-field climbing far up its steep side. At 
the narrow base of the spur, a, straw-colored lawn sur- 
rounds a white farm-house, with low, sloping roof and 
antique chimneys. It is half hidden among the maples, 
and sentineled by a tall Lombardy poplar. 

Two miles above the fall, the stream breaks into its 
two chief cofifluents — the 'New River and the Gauley. 
Hawk's Nest, near their junction, is a peculiarly roman- 
tic spot. In its vicinity our command halted. It was 



1861.] A Tragedy of Slavery. 179 

far from its "base, and Wise ran too fast for capture. We 
had five thousand troops, who were ill-disciplined and 
discontented. General Cox was then fresh from the Ohio 
Senate. After more field experience, he became an ex- 
cellent officer. 

When I returned through the valley, I found Charles- 
ton greatly excited. A docile and intelligent mulatto 
slave, of thirty years, had never been struck in his 
life. But, on the way to a hayfield, his new overseer 
began to crack his whip over the shoulders of the gang, 
to hurry them forward. The mulatto shook his head a 
little defiantly, when the whip was laid heavily across 
Ms back. Turning instantly upon the driver, he smote 
him with his hayfork, knocking him from his horse, and 
laying the skull bare. The overseer, a large, athletic 
man, drew his revolver ; but, before he could use it, the 
agile mulatto wrenched it awaj, and fired two shots at 
his head, which instantly killed him. Taking the 
weapon, the slave fled to the mountains, whence he 
escaped to the Ohio line. 

St. Lom3, August 19, 1861. 

Ill the days of stage- coaches, the trip from Cincin- 
nati to St. Louis was a very melancholy experience ; in 
the days of steamboats, a very tedious one. N'ow, you 
leave Cincinnati on a summer evening; and the- placid 
valley of the Ohio — the almost countless cornfields of 
the Great Miami (one of them containing fifteen hundred 
acres), where the exhaustless soil has produced that staple 
abundantly for fifty years — the grave and old home of 
General Harrison, at JN'orth Bend — the dense forests of 
Indiana — the Wabash Yalley, that elysium of chills and 
fever, where pumpkins are "fruit," and hoop-poles 
"timber" — the dead-level prairies of Illinois, with their 



180 The Future of St. Louis. [issi. 

oceans of corn, tufts of wood, and painfully wliite vil- 
lages^the muddj Mississippi, "AU-the- Waters," as one 
Indian tribe used to call it — are unrolled in panorama, 
till, at early morning, St. Louis, hot and parched with 
the journey, holds out her dusty hands to greet you. 

ISo inland city ever held such a position as this. Here 
is the heart of the unequaled valley, which extends 
.from the Rocky Mountains to the Alleghanies, and from 
the great lakes to the Gulf. Here is the mighty river, 
which drains a region six times greater than the empire 
of France, and "bears on its hosom the waters of fifty- 
seven navigable streams. Even the rude savage called it 
the "Father of Waters," and early Spanish explorers 
reverentially named it the " River of the Holy Ghost." 

St. Louis, "' with its thriving young heart, and its old 
French limbs," is to be the New York of the interior. 
The child is living who will see it the second city on the 
American continent. 

Three Rebel newspapers have recently been sup- 
pressed. The editor of one applied to the provost-mar- 
shal for permission to resume, but declined to give a 
pledge that no disloyal sentiment should appear in its 
columns. He was very tender of the Constitution, and 
solicitous about "the rights of the citizen." The mar- 
shal replied : 

"I cannot discuss these matters with you. I am a 
soldier, and obey orders." 

"But," remonstrated the editor, "you might be 
ordered to hang me." 

" Yery possibly," replied the major, dryly. 

" And you would obey orders, then f 

"Most assuredly I would, sir." 

The Secession journalist left, in profound disgust 



1861.] The Battle of Wilson Creek. 181 



CHAPTER XIV. 



-He died, 



To throw away the dearest thing he owed, 
As 'twere a careiess trifle. 

Macbeth. 

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. 

Merchant of Venice. 

On the 10th of August, at Wilson Creek, two hun- 
dred and forty miles southwest of St. Louis, occurred 
the hardest-fought battle Oi' the year. General L3^on had 
pursued the Rebels to that corner of the State. He had 
called again and again for re-enforcements, but at Wash- 
ington nothing could be seen except Virginia. Lyon's 
force Avas five thousand two hundred men. The enemy, 
under Ben McCulloch and Sterling Price, numbered over 
eleven thousand, according to McCulloch' s official report. 
Lyon would not retreat. He thought that would injure 
the Cause more than to fight and be defeated. 

To one of his staff-officers, the night before the en- 
gagement, he said : "I believe in presentiments, and, 
ever since this attack was planned, I have felt that it 
would result disastrously. But I cannot leave the 
country without a battle." 

On his way to the field, he was silent and abstracted ; 
but when the guns opened, he gave his orders with great 
promptness and clearness. 

He had probably resolved that he would not leave the 
field alive unless he left it as a victor. By a singular co- 
incidence, the two armies marched out before daybreak 
on that morning each to attack the other. They met, and 
for many hours the tide of battle ebbed and flowed. 

Lyon' s little army fought with conspicuous gallantry. 



182 Daring Exploit of a Kansas Officer. [isei. 

It contained tlie very best material. The following is 
a list — from memory, and therefore quite incomplete — 
of some officers, who, winning here their first renown, 
afterward achieved wide and honorable reputation : 

At Wilson Ckeek. Afterwakd. 

Frederick Steele Captain Major-General. 

F. J. Herron Captain Major-General. 

P. J. Osterhaus Major Major-General. 

S. D. Sturgis Major Major-General. 

E. B. Mitchell Colonel Major-General. 

Franz Sigel Colonel Major-General. 

D. S. Stanley Captain Major-General. 

J. M. Schofield Major Major-General. 

Gordon Granger Captain Major-General. 

J. B. Plummer Captain Brigadier-General. 

James Totten Captain Brigadier-General. 

E. A. Oarr Captain Brigadier-General. 

Geo. W. Deitzler Colonel Brigadier-General. 

T. W. Sweeney Captain Brigadier-General. 

Geo. L. Andrews Lieutenant-Colonel.. .Brigadier-General. 

I. F. Shepard Major Brigadier-General. 

During the hattle, Captain Powell Clayton' s company 
of the First Kansas Volunteers, becoming separated from 
the rest of our forces, was approached by a regiment uni- 
formed precisely like the First Iowa. Clayton had just 
aligned his men with this new regiment, when he de- 
tected small strips of red cloth on the shoulders of the 
■privates, which marked them as Rebels. With perfect 
coolness, he gave the order : 

" Right oblique, march ! You are crowding too much 
upon this regiment." 

By this maneuver his company soon placed a good 
fifty yard's between itself and the Rebel regiment, when 
the Adjutant of the latter rode up in front, suspicious 
that all was not right. Turning to Clayton, he asked : 

" What troops are these ?" 



1861.] The Death of Lyon. 183 

' ' First Kansas, ' ' was the prompt reply. ' ' Wliat regi- 
ment is that ?" 

"Fifth Missouri, Col. Clarkson." 

" Southern or Union ?" 

" Southern," said the Eebel, wheeling his horse ; iDut 
Clayton seized him hy the collar, and threatened to shoot 
him if he commanded his men to attack. The Adjutant, 
heedless of his own danger, ordered his regiment to open 
fire upon the Kansas company. He was shot dead on 
the spot by Clayton, who told his men to run for their 
lives. They escaped with the loss of only four. 

Toward evening Lyon's horse was killed under him. 
Immediately afterward, his officers begged that he would 
retire to a less exposed spot. Scarcely raising his eyes 
from the enemy, he said : 

" It is well enough that I stand here. I am satisfied." 

While the line was forming, he turned to Major 
Sturgis, who stood near him, and remarked : 

" I fear that the day is lost. I think I will lead this 
charge." ^' 

Early in the day he had received a flesh-wound in 
the leg, from which the blood flowed profusely. Stur- 
gis now noticed fresh blood on the General's hat, and 
asked where it came from. 

"It is nothing. Major, nothing but a wound in the' 
head," replied Lyon, mounting a fresh horse. 

Without taking the hat that was held out to him by 
Major Sturgis, he shouted to the soldiers : 

" Forward, men ! I will lead you." 

Two minutes later he lay dead on the field, pierced by 
a rifle-ball through the breast, just above the heart. 

Our officers held a hurried consultation, and decided 
not only to retreat, but to abandon southwest Missouri. 
Strangely enough, the coincidence of the morning was 



184 Lyon's Courage and Patriotism. [isei. 

here repeated. Almost simultaneously, tlie Rebels de- 
cided to fall back. They were in full retreat when they 
"were arrested by the news of the departure of the Fede- 
ral troops, and return,ed to take possession of the field 
which the last Union soldier had abandoned eight hours 
before. 

They claimed a great victory, and with justice, as 
they finally held the ground. Their journals were very 
jubilant. Said The New Orleans Picayune : 

" Lyon is killed, Sigel in flight ; southwestern Missouri is clear of 
the National scum of invaders. The next word will be, ' On to St. 
Louis,' That taken, the whole power of Lincolnism is broken in the 
West, and instead of shouting ' Ho for Richmond !' and ' Ho for New Or- 
leans!' there will be hurrying to and fro among the frightened magnates 
at Washington, and anxious inquiries of what they shall do to save them- 
selves from the vengeance to come. Heaven smiles on the armies of the 
Confederate States." 

Lyon went into the battle in civilian' s dress, except- 
ing only a military coat. He had on a soft hat of ashen 
hue, with long fur and very broad brim, turned up on 
three sides. He had worn it for a month ; it would have 
individualized the wearer among fifty thousand men. 
His peculiar dress and personal appearance were well 
known through the enemy' s camp. He received a new 
and elegant uniform just before the battle, but it was 
never worn until his remains were clothed in it, after the 
brave spirit had fied, and while our forces were retreat- 
ing from Springfield by night. 

Notwithstanding his personal bravery and military 
education, he always opposed dueling on principle. No 
provocation made him recognize the ' ' code. ' ' Once he 
was struck in the face, but he had courage enough to re- 
fuse to challenge his adversary. For a time this subjec- 
ted him to misapprehension and contempt among military 



1861] Arrival of General Fremont. 185 

men, but, long before liis death, his fellow-officers under- 
stood and respected him. 

He seemed to care little for personal fame — to think 
only of the Cause. Knowing exactly what was before 
him, he went to death on that summer evening "as a 
man goes to his bridal." Losing a life, he gained an im- 
mortality. His memory is green in the nation's heart, 
his name high on her roll of honor. 

On the 25th of July, Major- General John C. Fremont 
reached St. Louis, in command of the Western Depart- 
ment. His advent was hailed with great enthusiasm. 
The newspapers, "West, predicted for him achievements 
extravagant and impossible as those which the New 
York journals had foretold for McClellan. In those san- 
guine days, the whole country made "Young Napo- 
leons" to order. 

With characteristic energy, Fremont plunged into the 
business of his new department, where chaos reigned, 
and he had no spell to evoke order, save the boundless 
patriotism and earnestness of the people. 

His head-quarters were established on Chouteau Ave- 
nue. He was overrun with visitors — every captain, or 
corporal, or civilian, seeking to prosecute his business 
•with the General in person. He was therefore com- 
pelled to shut himself up, and, by the sweeping refusal 
to admit petitioners to him, a few were excluded whose 
business was important. Some dissatisfaction and some 
jesting resulted. I remember three Kansas officers, 
charged with affairs of moment, who used daily to be 
merry, describing how they had made a reconnoissance 
toward Fremont' s head-quarters, fought a lively engage- 
ment, and driven in the pickets, only to find the main 
garrison so well guarded that they were quite unable to 
force it. 



186 Union Families Driven Out. [isgi, 

St. Louis, August 26, 1861. 

A long carayan of old-fashioned Yirginia wagons, 
containing rude chairs, bedsteads, and kitchen utensils, 
passed through town yesterday. They brought from 
the Southwest families who, 

"Forced from their homes, a melanclioly train," 

are seeking in free Illinois that protection which 
Government is unable to afford them in Missouri. At 
least fifty thousand inoffensive persons have thus fled 
since the Rebellion. 

August 29. 

We were lately surprised and gratified to learn that a 
gentleman from Minnesota had off'ered an unasked loan 
of forty-six thousand dollars to the Government au- 
thorities — gratified at such spontaneous j)atriotism, and 
surprised that any man who lived in Minnesota should 
have forty-six thousand dollars. The latter mystery has 
been explained by the discovery that he never took his 
funds to that vortex of real estate speculation, but left 
them in this city, where he formerly resided. Moreover, 
his money Avas in Missouri currency, which, though at 
par here in business transactions, is at a discount of 
eight per cent, on gold and New York exchange. The 
loan is to be returned to him in gold. So, after all, 
there is probably as much human nature to the square 
acre in Minnesota as anywhere else. 

September 6. 

"Egypt to the rescue!" is the motto upon the ban- 
ner of a new Illinois regiment. Southern Illinois, known 
as Egypt, is turning out men for the Mississippi cam- 
paign with surprising liberality ; whereupon a fiery Se- 
cessionist triumphantly calls attention to this prophetic 



1861.] An Involuntary Sojourn with Rebels. 187 

text, from Hosea : "Egypt stall gather tliem up ; Mem- 
pMs shall bury them !" 

The aptness of the citation is admirable ; but he is 
reminded, in return, that the pet phrase of the Rebels, 
"Let us alone," was the prayer of a man possessed of 
a devil, to the Saviour of the world ! 

I have just met a gentleman, residing in southwestern 
Missouri, whose experience is novel. He visited the 
camp of the Rebels to reclaim a pair of valuable horses, 
which they had taken from his residence. They not only 
retained the stolen animals, but also took from him those 
with which he went in pursuit, and left him the alterna- 
tive of walking; home, twenty-tliree miles, through a 
dangerous region, or remaining in their camp. Fond of 
adventure, he chose the latter, and for three weeks 
messed with a Missouri company. The facetious scoun- 
drels told him that they could not afford to keep him 
unless he earned his living ; and employed him as a team- 
ster. He had philosophy enough to make the best of it, 
and flattered himself that he became a very creditable 
mule-driver. 

Early on the morning of August 10th, he was break- 
fasting with the officers from a dry-goods box, which 
served for a table, when bang ! went a cannon, not more 
than two or three hundred yards from them, and crash ! 
came a ball, cutting off the branches just above their 
heads. "Here is the devil to pay ; the Dutch are upon 
us!" exclaimed the captain, springing up and ordering 
his company to form. 

My friend was a looker-on from the Southern side du- 
ring the whole battle. He gives a graphic account of the 
joy of the Rebels at finding the body of General Lyon, 
lying under a tree (the first information they had of his 
death), and their surprise and consternation at the bravery 
with which the little Union army fought to the bitter end. 



188 A Startling Confederate Atrocity. [isei. 

Twenty leading Secessionists are in durance vile 
here. There is a poetic justice in the fact that their 
prison was formerly a slave-pen, and that they are en- 
abled to study State Rights from old negro quarters. 

September *l. 

The Kehels have just perpetrated a new and startling 
atrocity. They cut down the high railroad bridge over 
the Little Platte River near St. Joseph. The next traiix 
from Hannibal reached the spot at midnight, and its loco- 
motive and five cars were precipitated, thirty feet, into 
the bed of the river. More than fifty passengers were 
dangerously wounded, and twenty instantly killed. 
They were mainly women and children ; there was not 
a single soldier among them. 

September 15. 

General Fremont is issuing written guarantees for 
their freedom to the slaves of Rebels. They are in 
the form of real-estate conveyances, releasing the recipient 
from all obligations to his master ; declaring him forever 
free from servitude, and with full right and authority to 
control his own labor. They are headed " Deed of Manu- 
mission," authenticated by the great seal of the Western 
Department, and the signature of its commander. Tliink 
of giving a man a warranty-deed for his own body and 
soul ! 

In compliance with imperative orders from the Gov- 
ernment, several regiments, though sadly needed here, are 
being sent eastward. To the colonel commanding one of 
them, the order was conveyed by Fremont in these 
characteristic terms : 

" Eepair at once to Washington. Transportation is provided for you. 
My friend, I am sorry to part witli you, but there are laurels growing on 
Ihe banks of the Potomac." 



18G1.] Organization of the " Bohemian Brigade." 189 



CHAPTER XY. 

Why should a man, whose blodd is ivarm withih, 

Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster? — Merchant o* TfiNlOa 

I]sr Octolber, General Fremont' s forming army rendez- 
voused at the capital of Missouri. From afar, Jefferson 
City is picturesque; but distance lends enchantment. 
Close inspection shows it uninviting and rough. The 
Capitol, upon a frowning hill, is a little suggestive of 
thfe sober old State House which overlooks Boston Com- 
mon. Brick and frame houses enough for a population 
of three thousand straggle over an area of a mile square, 
as if they had been tossed up like a peck of apples, and 
left to come down and locate themselves. Many are half 
hidden by the locust, ailantus, and arbor- vitse trees, and 
the white blossoms of the catalpas. 

The war correspondents " smelledthe battle from afar 
off." More than twenty collected two or three weeks be- 
fore the army started. Some of them were very grave 
and decorous at home, but here they were like boys let 
out of school. 

They styled themselves the Bohemian Brigade, and 
exhibited that touch of the vagabond which Irving cha- 
ritably attributes to all poetic temperaments. They were 
quartered in a wretched little tavern eminently First 
Class in its prices. It was very southern in style. A 
broad balcony in front, over a cool brick pavement ; 
no two rooms upon the same level ; no way of get- 
ting up stairs except by going out of doors ; long, 
low wings, shooting off in all directions ; a gallery 
j|i the rear, deeper than the house itself; heavy fur- 



190 An Amused African. [isei 

niture, from tke last generation, with a single modern 
link in the shape of a piano in the ladies' parlor ; leis- 
urely negro waiters, including little bojs and girls, stand- 
ing behind guests at dinner, and waving long wands over 
the table to disconcert the omnipresent flies; and corn 
bread, hot biscuits, ham, and excellent coffee. The host 
and hostess were slaveholders, who said "thar" and 
"whar," but held that Secessionists were traitors, and 
that traitors ought to be hung. 

The landlord, who was aged, rheumatic, and half blind, 
labored under the delusion that he kept the house ; but 
an intelligent and middle-aged slave, yclept John, was 
the real brain of the establishment. 

"John," asked one of the correspondents, "does 
your master really think he is alive V ' 

" 'Live, sir ? I reckon so." 

"Why, he has been dead these twenty years. He 
hobbles around, pretending he exists, just to save fune- 
ral expenses." 

John's extravagant enjoyment of this sorry jest beg- 
gared description. He threw himself on the floor, rolled 
over and over, and roared with laughter for fifteen min- 
utes. He did not recover his usual gravity for weeks. 
Again and again, while waiting upon guests, he would 
see his master coming, and suddenly explode with mer- 
riment, to the infinite amazement of the habitues of the 
house, who suspected that the negro was losing his 
wits. 

The Bohemians took their ease in their inn, and held 
high carnival, to the astonishment of all its attaches^ from 
the aged proprietor down to the half-fiedged negro cher- 
ubs. . Each seemed to regard as his personal property the 
half-dozen rooms which all occupied. The one who 
dressed earliest in the morning Avould appropriate the 



1861.] Diversions of the Correspondents. 191 

first liat, coat, and boots lie found, remarking that the 
owner was probably dead. 

One huge, good-natured brother they called "the 
Elephant." He was greatly addicted to sleeping in 
the daytime ; and when other resources failed, some 
reckless quill-driver would say : 

" 'Now, let's all go and sleep with the Elephant." 

Eight or ten would pile themselves upon his bed, be- 
side him and upon him, until his good-nature became 
exhausted, when the giant would toss them out of 
the room like so many pebbles, and lock his door. 

There was little Avork to be done ; so they discussed 
politics, art, society, and metaphysics ; and vf ould soon 
kindle into singing, reciting, "sky-larking," wrestling, 
flinging saddles, valises, and pillows. In some recent 
theatrical spectacle, two had heard a "chorus of 
fiends," which tickled their fancy. As the small hours 
approached, it was their unceasing delight to roar imi- 
tations of it, declaring, with each repetition, that it was 
now to be given positively for the last time, and by the 
very special request of the audience. How they sent 
that demoniac "Ha! ha! ha!" shrieking through the 
midnight air ! The following account of their diver- 
sions was given by "J. Gr." in T7ie Cincinnati Gazette. 
The scenes he witnessed suggested, very naturally, the 
nomenclature of the prize-ring : 

Happening to drop in the other night, I found the representatives 
of The Missouri Republican^ TTie Cincinnati Commercial^ The New 
Yorlc World, and The Tribune, engaged in a hot discussion upon matri- 
mony, which finally ran into metaphysics. The Republican having 
plumply disputed an abstruse proposition of The Tribune, the latter 
seized an immense bolster, and brought it down with emphasis upon the 
glossy pate of his antagonist. This instantly broke up the debate, and 
a general melee commenced. The Republican grabbed a damp towel and 



192 A Polite Army Chaplain. [isei. 

aimed a stunning blow at his assailant, wMch missed him and brought 
up against the nasal protuberance of Frank Leslie. The exasperated 
Frank dealt back a pillow, followed by a well-packed knapsack. Then 
The Missouri Pemocrat Sent a coverlet, which lit upon and enveloped 
the knowledge-box of The Serald. The latter disengaged himself after 
several frantic efforts, and hurled a ponderous pair of saddle-bags, which 
passed so close to The Gazette's head, that in dodging it he bumped his 
phrenology against the bed-post, and raised a respectable organ where 
none existed before. Simultaneously The Commercial threw a haver- 
sack, which hit Sarper in the bread-basket, and doubled him into a 
folio — knocking him against The World, who, toppling from his center 
of gravity, was poising a plethoric bed-tick with dire intent, when the 
upturned legs of a chair caught and tore it open, scattering the feathers 
through the surging atmosphere. In falling, he capsized the table, spill- 
ing the ink, wrecking several literary barks, extinguishing the "brief 
candle" that had faintly revealed the sanguinary fray, thus abruptly ter- 
minating hostilities, but leaving the panting heroes still defiant and 
undismayed. A light was at last struck ; the combatants adjusted their 
toilets, and, having lit the calumets of peace, gently resigned themselves 
to the soothing influence of the weed. 

They did not learn, for several days, that a meek 
chaplain, with his wife and three children, inhabited an 
adjacent apartment. He was at once sent for, and a fit- 
ting apology tendered. He replied that he had actually 
enjoyed the novel entertainment. He mnst have been 
the most polite man in the whole world. He is worthy 
a niche in biography, beside the lady who was showered 
with gravy, by Sidney Smith, and who, while it was 
still dripping from her chin, blandly replied to his 
apologies, that not a single drop had touched her ! 

When in-door diversions failed, the correspondents 
amused themselves by racing their horses, Avhich were 
aU fresh and excitable. That region, abounding in hills, 
ravines, and woods, is peculiarly seductive to reckless 
equestrians desiring dislocated limbs or broken necks. 

One evening, the "Elephant" was thrown heavily 



18G1.] Sights in Jefferson City. 193 

from his liorse, and severely lamed. The next night, 
nothing daunted, he repeated the race, and was hurled 
upon the ground with a force which destroyed his con- 
sciousness for three or four hours. A comrade, in at- 
tempting to stop the riderless horse, was dragged under 
the heels of his own animal. His mild, protesting look, 
as he lay flat upon his iDack, holding in hoth hands the 
uplifted, threatening foot of his fiery Pegasus, was quite 
beyond description. One correspondent dislocated his 
shoulder, and went home from the field hefore he heard 
a gun. 

Jeffersoit Citt, Mo., October 6, 1861. 

These deep ravines and this fathomless mud offer to 
obstinate mules unlimited facilities for shying, and in- 
finite possibilities of miring. Last night, six animals 
and an army wagon went over a small precipice, and, 
after a series of somersaults, driver, wagon, and mules, 
reached the bottom, in a very chaotic condition. 

Jefferson is strong on the wet weather question. 
When Lyon got here in June, he was welcomed by one 
man with an umbrella. "Wlien Fremont arrived, a few 
nights ago, he was taken in charge by the same gentle- 
man, who was floundering about through the mud with 
a lantern, seeking, not an honest man, but quarters for 
th« commanding general. 

Most of the troops have gone forward, but some re- 
main. Newly mounted officers, who sit upon their steeds 
much as an elephant might walk a tight rope, dash madly 
through the streets, fondly dreaming that they witch the 
world with noble horsemanship. Subalterns show a 
weakness for brass buttons, epaulettes, and gold braid, 
which leaves feminine vanity quite in the shade. 

In the camps, the long roll is sometimes sounded at 
midnight, to accustom officers and men to spring to arms. 

13 



194 "Fights mit Sigel." [isei. 

"Upon the first of tliese sudden calls from Morpheus to 
Mars, the negro servant of a staff-officer was so badly 
frightened that he bronght up his master's horse with 
the crupper about the neck instead of the tail. The mis- 
take was discovered just in season to save the rider 
from the proverbial destiny of a beggar on horseback. 

Here is a German private very shaky in the legs ; he 
swears by Fremont and "fights mit Sigel." Too much 
"lager" is the trouble with Mim; and, in serene though 
harmless inebriety, he is arrested by a file of soldiers. 
A capital print in circulation represents a native and 
a German volunteer, with uplifted mugs of the nectar of 
G-ambrinus, striking hands to the motto, "One flag, one 
country, zwei lager P'' 

Here is a detachment of Home Guards, whose "uni- 
form is multiform." To a proposition, that the British 
militia should never be ordered out of the country, Pitt 
once moved the satirical proviso, "Except in case of in- 
vasion." So it is alleged that the Missouri Home Guards 
are very useful — except in case of a battle ; and I hear 
one merciless critic style them the "Home Cowards." 
This is unjust ; but they illustrate the princi]3le, that to 
attain good drill and discipline, soldiers should be be- 
yond the reach of home. 

Camp Lillie, upon a beautiful grassy slope, is the head- 
quarters of the commander. In his tent, directing, by 
telegraph, operations throughout this great department, 
or upon horseback, personally inspecting the regiments, 
you meet the peculiarly graceful, slender, compact, mag- 
netic man whose assignment here awoke so much enthu- 
siasm in the West. General Fremont is quiet, well- 
poised, and unassuming. His friends are very earnest, 
his enemies very bitter. Those who know him only by 
his early exploits, are surprised to find in the hero of the 



1861.] A Physiological Phenomenon. 195 

frontier the graces of the saloon. He impresses one as 
a man very modest, very genuine, and very much in 
earnest. 

His hair is tinged with silver. His heard is sprinkled 
with snow, though two months ago it was of unmingled 
hrown. 

"For turned it wMte 
In a single night, 
As men's have done from sudden fears ;" 

hut it did hlanch under the absorhing labors and anxie- 
ties of two months — a physiological fact which Doctor 
Holmes will be good enough to explain to us at his earli- 
est convenience. "" 

Mrs. Fremont is in camp, but will return to Saint 
Louis when the army moves. She inherits many traits 
of her father's character. She possesses that "excellent 
thing in woman," a voice, like Annie Laurie's, low and 
sweet — more rich, more musical, and better modulated, 
than that of any tragedienne upon the stage. To a 
broad, comprehensive intellect she adds those quick in- 
tuitions which leap to results, anticipating explanations, 
and those proclivities for episode, incident, and bits of 
personal analyzing, which make a woman's talk so 
charming. 

How much rarer this grace of familiar speech than 
any other accomplishment whatever ! In a lifetime one 
meets not more than four or five great conversationalists, 
Jessie Benton Fremont is among the felicitous few, if 
not queen of them all. 

October 8. 

The army is forty thousand strong. Generals Sigel, 
Hunter, Pope, Asboth, and McEanstry command respect- 
ively its five divisions. 



196 SiGEL, Hunter, Pope, Asboth, McKinstry. [isei. 

Sigel is slender, pale, wears spectacles, and looks 
more like a student than a soldier. He was professor in 
a university wken the war broke out. 

Hunter, at sixty, and agile as a boy, is erect and grim, 
with bald head and Hungarian mustache. 

Pope is heavy, full-faced, brown-haired, and looks 
like a man of brains. 

Asboth is tall, daring-eyed, elastic, a mad rider, and 
profoundly polite, bowing so low that his long gray hair 
almost sweeps the ground. 

McKinstry is six feet two, sinewy-framed, deep-chest- 
ed, firm-faced, wavy-haired, and black-mustached. He 
looks like the hero of a melodrama, and the Bohemians 
term him "the heavy tragedian." 

Warsaw, Mo., October 22. 

An officer of New York mercantile antecedents, re- 
cently appointed to a high position, reached Syracuse a 
few days since, under orders to report to Fremont. He 
would come no farther than the end of the railroad, but 
turned abruptly back to St. Louis. Being asked his rea- 
son, he made this reply, peculiarly ingenuous and racy 
for a brigadier-general and staff-officer : 

"Why, I found that I should have to go on horse- 
back !" 

With two fellow-journalists, I left Syracuse four days 
ago. Asboth' s and Sigel' s divisions had preceded us. 
The post-commandant would not permit us to come 
through the distracted, guerrilla-infested country without 
an escort, but gave us a sergeant and four men of the reg- 
ular army. 

On the way we spent the supper hour near Cole 
Camp. Our Falstaffian landlord informed us that two 
brothers, Jim and Sam Cole, encamped here in early 



1861.] Sigel's Transportation Train. 197 

days, to hunt bears, and tliat the creek was named in 
remembrance of them. Being asked with great gravity 
the extremely Bohemian question, ^'■WMch of them ?" 
he relapsed into a profound study, from which he did 
not afterward recover. 

We made the trip — forty-seven miles — in ten hours. 
This is a strong Secession village. Half its male inhabit- 
ants are in the Rebel army. Our officers quarter in the most 
comfortable residences. At first the people were greatly 
incensed at the "Abolition soldiery," but they now sub- 
mit gracefully. One of the most malignant Rebel fami- 
lies involuntarily entertains a dozen German officers, who 
drink lager-beer industriously, -smoke meerschaums un- 
ceasingly, and at night sing unintermittently. 
, We are quartered at the house of a lady who has a 
son in Price' s army, and a daughter in whom education 
and breeding maintain constant warfare with her antipa- 
thies toward the Union forces. Being told the other 
evening that one of our party was a Black Republican, 
she regarded him with a wondering stare, declaring that 
she never saw an Abolitionist before in her life, and 
apparently amazed that he wore the human face divine ! 

Sigel, as usual, is thirty miles ahead. He has more go 
in him than any other of our generals. Several division 
commanders are still waiting for transportation, but Sigel 
collected horse- wagons, ox-wagons, mule-wagons, family- 
carriages, and stage-coaches, and pressed animals until he 
organized a most unique transportation train three or four 
miles long. He crossed his division over the swift Osage 
River — three hundred yards wide — in twenty-four hours, 
upon a single ferry-boat. The Rebels justly name him 
"The Flying Dutchman." 

The Missourians along our line of march have very ex- 
travagant ideas about the Federal army. We stopped at 



198 A Countryman's Estimate of Troops. [isei. 

the house of a native, where ten thousand troops had 
passed. He placed their numher at forty thousand ! 

"I reckon you have, in all, about seventy thousand 
men, and three hundred cannon, haven't you ?" he 
asked. 

" We have a hundred and fifty thousand men, and six 
hundred pieces of artillery," replied a wag in the party. 

"Well," said the countryman, thoughtfully, "I 
reckon you'll clean out old Price this time 1" 



1861.] A "Kid-Gloved" Corps. 199 



CHAPTER XVI. ; 

Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more, 
Or close the wall up with our English dead! — King Henry V. 

GtEI^eral Fremoin"t' s Body Guard was composed of 
picked young men of unusual intelligence. Tliey were 
all handsomely uniformed, efficiently armed, and moun- 
ted upon bay liorses. They cultivated the mustache, 
■with the rest of the face smooth — at least, not a more 
whimsical decree than the rigid regulation of the British 
army, which compelled every man to shave and wear a 
stock under the burning sun of the Crimea. Many de- 
nounced the Guard as a "kid-gloved," ornamental corps, 
designed only to swell Fremont' s retinue. 

Major Zagonyi, commandant of the Guard, vrith one 
hundred and fifty of his men, started with orders to re- 
connoiter the country in front of us. When near Spring- 
field, they found the town held by a Rebel force of cav- 
alry and infantry, ill organized, but tolerably armed, 
and numbering two thousand. 

Zagonyi drew his men up in line, explained the situa- 
tion, and asked whether they would attack or turn back 
for re-enforcements. They replied unanimously that they 
would attack. 

They did attack. Men and horses were very weary. 
They had ridden fifty miles in seventeen hours ; they had 
never been under fire before ; but history hardly paral- 
lels their daring. 

The Rebels formed in line of battle at the edge 
of a wood. To approach them, the Guard were com- 



200 Charge of the Body Guard. [isei. 

pelled to ride down a narrow lane, exposed to a terrible 
fire from three different directions. They went through 
this shower of "bullets, dismounted, tore down the high 
zig-zag fence, led their horses over in the teeth of the 
enemy, remounted, formed, and, spreading out, fan-like, 
charged impetuously, shouting "Fremont and the Union." 

The engagement was very brief and very bloody. 
Though only in the proportion of one to thirteen, the 
Gruard behaved as if weary of their lives. Men ut- 
terly reckless are masters of the situation. At first, the 
Confederates fought well ; but they were soon panic- 
stricken, and many dropped their guns, and ran to and 
fro like persons distracted. 

The Guard charged through and through the broken 
ranks of the Rebels, chased them in all directions — into 
the woods, beyond the w®ods, down the roads, through 
the town — and planted the old flag upon the Spring- 
field court-house, where it had not waved since the death 
of Lyon.- 

Armed with revolvers and revolving carbines, mem- 
bers of the Guard had twelve shots apiece. After 
delivering their first fire, there was no time to reload, 
and (the only instance of the kind early in the war) 
nearly all their work was done with the saber. When 
they mustered again, almost every blade in the com- 
mand was stained with blood. 

Of their one hundred and fifty horses, one hundred 
and twenty were wounded. A sergeant had three horses 
shot under him. A private received a bullet in a black- 
ing-box, which he carried in his pocket. They lost fifty 
men, sixteen of whom were killed on the spot. 

"I wonder if they ^vill call us fancy soldiers and kid- 
gloved boys any longer?" said one, who lay wounded 
in the hospital when we arrived. 



1861.] Turning the Tables. 201 

On a cot beside him, I found an old schoolmate. His 
eye brightened as he grasped my hand. 

•'Is your wound serious ?" I asked. 

"Painful, hut not fatal. O, it was a glorious fight !" 

It was a glorious fight. Wilson Creek is doubly 
historic ground. There first a thousand of our men 
poured out their blood like water, and the brave Lyon 
laid down his life "for our dear country's sake." Two 
months later, the same stream witnessed the charge of 
the Body Guard, which, in those dark days, when the 
Cause looked gloomy, thrilled every loyal heart in the 
nation. It will shine down the historic page, and be 
immortal in song and story. 

Major Frank J. White, of our army, was with the 
Rebels as a prisoner of war during the charge. Just be- 
fore they were routed, fourteen men, under a South Caro- 
lina captain, started with him for General Price' s camp. 
At a house where they spent the night, the farmer 
boldly avowed himself a Union man. He supposed 
White to be one of the Rebel ofiicers ; but, finding a 
moment's opportunity, the major whispered to him : 

"I am a Union prisoner. Send word to Springfield 
at once, and my men will come and rescue me." 

The Rebels, leaving one man on picket outside, went 
to bed in the same room with their prisoner. Then the 
farmer sent his little boy of twelve years, on horseback, 
fourteen miles to Springfield. At three o'clock in the 
morning, twenty-six Home Guards surrounded the 
house, and captured the entire party. Major White 
at once took command, and posted Ms guards over the 
crestfallen Confederates. 

While they sat around the fire in the evening, waiting 
for supper, the Rebel captain had remarked : 

"Major, we have a little leisure, and I believe I will 



202 Welcome from Union Residents. [i86l 

amuse myself by looking over your papers." Where- 
upon lie spent an hour in examining the letters which 
he found in White's possession. In the morning, when 
the party, again sitting hy the fire, Avaited for breakfast, 
the major said, quietly : 

" Captain, we have a little leisure, and I think I will 
amuse myself by looking over your papers." So the 
Rebel documents were scrutinized in turn. White re- 
turned in triumph to Springfield, bringing his late cap- 
tors as prisoners. A friendship sprang up between him 
and the South Carolina captain, who remained on parole 
in our camp for several days, and they messed and slept 
together. 

"When our troops entered Springfield, the people 
greeted them with uncontrollable joy ; for they were in- 
tensely loyal, and had been under Rebel rule more than 
eleven weeks. Scores and scores of I!^ational flags now 
suddenly emerged from mysterious hiding-places ; wan- 
dering exiles came pouring back, and we were welcomed 
by hundreds of glad faces, waving handkerchiefs, swing- 
ing hats, and vociferous huzzas. 

Fremont had now modified his Proclamation ; but the 
logic of events was stronger than President Lincoln. 
The negroes would throng our camp, and Fremont never 
permitted a single one to be returned. One slave appro- 
priated a horse, and, guiding him only by a rope about 
the nose, without saddle or bridle, blanket or spur, rode 
from Price' s camp to Fremont' s head-quarters, more than 
eighty miles, in eighteen hours. 

A brigade of regular troops, under General Stur- 
gis, having marched from Kansas City, joined us in 
Springfield. They were under very rigid discipline, and 
all their supplies, whether procured from Rebels or 
Unionists, were paid for in gold. Sturgis was then very 



1861.] Freaks of the Kansas Brigade. 203 

"conservative," and some of our people denounced liim 
as disloyal. But, like hundreds of others, inexorable 
war educated him very rapidly. His sympathies were 
soon heartily on our side. He afterward, in the Army 
of the Potomac, won and wore bright laurels. 

The Kansas volunteer brigade, under General " Jim" 
Lane, also joined us at Springfield. Their course con- 
trasted sharply with that of Sturgis' s men. They had a 
good many old scores to settle up, and they swept along 
the Missouri border like a hurricane. Sublimely indif- 
ferent to the President's orders, and all other orders 
which did not please them, they received over two thou- 
sand slaves, sending them off by installments into Kansas. 
When the master was loyal, they would gravely appraise 
the negro ; give him a receipt for his slave, named 

— , valued at hundred dollars, "lost by the 

march of the Kansas Brigade," and advise him to carry 
the claim before Congress ! 

By some unexplained law, dandies, fools, and super- 
cilious braggarts often gravitate into staff positions ; but 
Fremont' s staff was an exceedingly agreeable one. Many 
of its members had traveled over the globe, and, from 
their wide experiences, whiled away many hours before 
the evening camp-fires. 

On the 31st of October, the correspondents, under cav- 
alry escort, visited the Wilson Creek battle-ground, ten 
miles south of Springfield. 

The field is broken by rocky ridges and deep ravines, 
and covered with oak shrubs. Picking his way among 
the brushwood, my horse' s hoof struck with a dull, hol- 
low sound against a human skull. Just beyond, still 
clad in uniform, lay a skeleton, on whose ghastliness the 
storms and sunshine of three months had fallen. The 
head was partially severed ; and though the upturned 



204 Capture op a Female Spy. [isei. 

face was flesMess, I conld not resist the impression that 
it wore a look of mortal agony. It was in a little thicket, 
several yards from the scene of any fighting. The poor 
fellow was carried there, dying or dead, during the pro- 
gress of the iDattle, and afterward overlooked. Among 
our lost his name was prol)aT3ly followed by the sad 
word "Missing." 

" Not among the suffering -wounded ; 
Not among the peaceful dead ; 
Not among the prisoners. Missing — 
That was all the message said. 

" Yet his mother reads it over, 

Until, through her painful tears, 
Fades the dear name she has called him 
For these two-and-twenty years." 

Many graves had been opened by wolves. Bones of 
horses, haversacks, shoes, blouses, gun-barrels, shot, and 
fragments of shell, were scattered over the field. The 
trees were scarred with bullets, and hundreds were 
felled by the artillery. A six-inch shot would cut down 
one of these brittle oaks a foot in diameter. 

A few miles south of Springfield one of our scouts en- 
countered a young woman on horseback. Suspecting 
her errand, he informed her confidentially that he was a 
spy from Price' s army, who had been several days in 
Fremont's camp. Falling into this palpable trap, the 
girl told him frankly that she was sent by Price to visit 
our forces, and obtain information. She was taken im- 
mediately to Fremont's head-quarters. Her terror was 
very great on finding herself betrayed. She told all she 
knew about the Rebels, and was finally allowed to depart 
in peace. The employment of female spies was very 
common upon both sides. 



1861.] Fremont's Farewell to his Army. 205 

On the 2d of November our whole army was at Spring- 
field. Fremont had progressed farther south than any 
other Union commander, from the Atlantic to the Rio 
Grande. Detachments of Rebels were within ten miles 
of our camps. Emphatic, but entirely false reports from 
the colonel at the head of Fremont' s scouts, * had given 
the impression that Price's entire command was very 
near us ; and a great battle was hourly expected. 

Fremont was in the midst of an important campaign. 
His army was most patriotic, enthusiastic, and promising. 
His personal popularity among his troops was without 
parallel. 

At this moment the official ax fell. He received an 
order to turn over his command to Hunter. It was a 
trying ordeal, but he did a soldier' s duty, obeying silently 
and instantly. The first intelligence which the army re- 
ceived was conveyed by this touching farewell : 

SoLDiEEs OF THE MISSISSIPPI Aemy : Agreeably to orders this day 
received, I take leave of you. Although our army has been of sudden 
growth, we have grown up together, and I have become familiar with 
the brave and generous spirit which you bring to the defense of your 
country, and which makes me anticipate for you a brilliant career. 

Continue as you have begun, and give to my successor the same cor- 
dial and enthusiastic support with which you have encouraged me. 
Emulate the splendid example already before you, and let me remain, as 
I am, proud of the noble army which I have thus far labored to bring 
together. 

* This officer was a native Missourian, deemed trustworthy, and 
thoroughly familiar with the country. He reported officially to Fremont 
that the whole Rebel army was within eleven miles of us, when it was 
really fifty miles away. Then, indeed, much later in the war, accurate 
information about the enemy seemed absolutely unattainable. Scott, 
McOleUan, Halleck, Grant, all failed to procure it. Rosecrans was the 
first general who kept hi*nself thoroughly advised of the whereabouts, 
strength, and designs of the Rebels. 



206 Disaffection among the Soldiers. [isgl 

Soldiers ! I regret to leave you. Sincerely I thank you for the regard 
and confidence you have invariably shown me. I deeply regret that I 
shall not have the honor to lead you to the victory which you are just 
about to win, but I shall claim to share with you in the joy of every 
triumph, and trust always to be fraternally remembered by my com- 
panions in arms. 

Fremont's name had. "been the rallying-point of the 
volunteers. Officers and entire regiments had come from 
distant parts of the country to serve under him. All 
felt the impropriety and cruelty of his removal at this 
time. Many officers at once wrote their resignations. 
Whole battalions were reported laying down their arms. 
The Germans were specially indignant, and among the 
Body Guard there was much bitterness. 

The slightest encouragement or tolerance from -.the 
General would have produced wide- spread mutiny ; but 
he expostulated with the malcontents, reminding them 
that their first duty was to the country ; and, after Hun- 
ter' s arrival, left the camp before daylight, lest his ap- 
pearance among the soldiers, as he rode away, should 
excite improper demonstrations. 

A few days moderated the feeling of the troops ; for, 
like all our volunteers, they were wedded not to any 
man, but to the Cause. 

In St. Louis, Fremont was received more like a con- 
quering hero than a retiring general. An immense 
assembly greeted him. In their enthusiasm, the people 
even carpeted his door-step with flowers. 
* ' For weeks before his removal the air had been filled 
with clamors, charging him with incompetency, extrav- 
agance, and giving Government contracts to corrupt 
men. The first attacks upon him immediately followed 
his Emancipation Proclamation, issued August 31, 1861. 

There were many half-hearted Unionists in Missouri. 



1861.] Spurious Missouri Unionists. 207 

For example, shortly after the capture of Sumter, G-en- 
eral Robert Wilson, of Andrew County, in a public 
meeting, served upon the committee on resolutions re- 
porting the following : 

'■'■ ResoUed^ That we condemn as inhuman and diabolical the war 
being waged hj the Gorernment against the South." 

Eight months after, this same Wilson claimed to be>a 
Union leader, and, as such, was sent to represent Mis- 
souri in the Senate of the United States ! Of course all 
men of this class waged unrelenting war upon Fremont. 
Afterward there was a rupture among the really loyal 
men ; a fierce quarrel, in which the able but un- 
scrupulous Blairs headed the opposition, and some zeal- 
ous and patriotic Unionists co-operated with them. The 
President, always conscientious, was persuaded to re- 
move the General ; but afterward tacitly admitted its 
injustice by giving him another command. 

Mr. Lincoln also countermanded the Emancipation 
Proclamation, which was a little ahead of the times. 
Still it gratified the plain people, even then. Tired of the 
tender and delicate terms in which our authorities were 
wont to speak of "domestic institutions" and "systems 
of labor," they were delighted to read the announce- 
ment in honest Saxon : 

"The property of active Eebels is confiscated for the public use; 
and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared Free Men." 

It was a new and pure leaf in the history of the war. ' 

Of course Fremont made mistakes, though the abuses 
in his department were infinitely less than those which 
disgraced Washington, and which in some degree are 
inseparable from large, unusual disbursements of public 
money. 



208 Conduct of Cameron and Thomas. [isei. 

But he was very earnest. He was quite ignorant of 
How Ifot to Do it. He took grave responsibilities. 
When red tape hampered him, he cut it. Unable to ob- 
tain arms at Washington — which, in those days, knew 
only Yirginia — he ransacked the markets of the world 
for them. When a paymaster refused to liquidate one 
of his bills, on the ground of irregularity, he arrested 
him, and threatened to have him shot if he persisted. 
Able to leave but few troops in St. Louis, he fortified the 
city in thirty days, employing five thousand laborers. 

Secretary Cameron and Adjutant-Gfeneral Thomas 
visited Missouri, after Fremont started upon his Spring- 
field campaign. General Thomas did not hesitate, in 
railway cars and hotels, to condemn him violently — a 
gross breach of official propriety, and clearly tending to 
excite insubordination among the soldiers. Cameron 
dictated a letter, ordering Fremont to discontinue the 
St. Louis fortifications as unnecessary, informing him 
that his official debts would not be discharged till inves- 
tigated, his contracts recognized, or the officers paid 
whom he had appointed under the written authority of 
the President. 

In due time they were recognized and paid. The St. 
Louis fortifications proved needful, and were afterward 
finished. Yet Cameron permitted the contents of this 
letter to be telegraphed all over the country four days 
before Fremont received it. It seemed designed to 
impugn his integrity, destroy his credit, promote disaf- 
fection in his camps, and prevent his contractors from 
fulfilling their engagements. Thomas officially reported 
that Fremont would not be able to move his army for 
lack of transportation. Before the report could reach 
Washington, the army had advanced more than a hun- 
dred miles 1 



1861.] Disregard of the Army Regulations. 209 

Time, which at last makes all things even, vindicated 
Fremont's leading measures in Missouri. His subse- 
quent withdrawal from the field, in Virginia, was doubt- 
less unwise. It was hard to be placed under a junior 
and hostile general ; but priva,te wrongs must wait in 
war, and resignation proves quite as inadequate a rem- 
edy for the grievances of an officer, as Secession for the 
fancied wrongs of the Slaveholders. 

Brigadier- General Justus McKinstry, ex- Quartermas- 
ter of the Western Department, was arrested, and closely 
confined in the St. Louis arsenal for many months. His 
repeated demands for the charges and specifications 
against him were disregarded. He was at last court-mar- 
tialed and dismissed the service, on the charge of mal- 
feasance in office. Brigadier- General Charles P. Stone 
was for a long time kept under arrest in the same man- 
ner. These proceedings flagrantly violated both the 
Army Regulation, entitling officers to know the charges 
and witnesses against them, within ten days after arrest, 
and the spirit of the Constitution itself, which guarantees 
to every man a speedy public trial in the presence of his 
accusers. 

Equally reprehensible was the arrest and long confine- 
ment of many civilians without formal charges or trial. 
States where actual war existed, and even the debatable 
ground which bordered them, might be proper fields for 
this exercise of the Military Power. But the friends of 
the Union, holding Congress, and nearly every State Le- 
gislature by overwhelming majorities, could make what- 
ever Jaws they pleased; therefore, these measures were 
unnecessary and unjustifiable in the North, hundreds of 
miles from the seat of war. Utterly at variance with per- 
sonal rights and republican institutions, they were alarming 
and dangerous precedents, which any unscrupulous fu- 
U 



210 Military Power and the Press. [isei. 

ture administration may plausibly cite in defense of the 
grossest outrages. President Lincoln was always yery 
cliary of this exercise of arbitrary power ; but some of his 
constitutional advisers were constantly urging it. Secre- 
tary Stanton, in particular, advocated and committed acts 
of flagrant despotism. He was a good patent-ofBce 
lawyer, but had not the faintest conception of those pri- 
mary principles of Civil Liberty which underlie English 
and American institutions. Even the Magna Charta, in 
sonorous Latin, declared : ♦ 

" No person shall be apprehended or imprisoned, except by the legal 
judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. To none will we sell, to 
none will we deny, to none will we delay right or justice." 

Kindred questions arose touching the Military Power 
and the Liberty of the Press. Each northern city had 
its daily journal, which, under thin disguise of loyalty, 
labored zealously for the Rebels. Soldiers could not 
patiently read treasonable sheets. On several occasions 
military commanders suppressed them, but the President 
promptly removed the disability. The sober second 
thought of the people was, that if editors and publishers 
in the loyal North could not be convicted and punished 
in the civil courts, they should not be molested. 

General Hunter, succeeding Fremont, evacuated 
southwestern Missouri. Before leaving Springfield, be- 
sieged with applications for runaway slaves, he issued 
orders to deliver them up ; but soldiers and ofiicers in his 
camps hid them so safely that they could not be found 
by their masters. 

Hunter's little brief authority lasted just fifteen days, 
when he was succeeded by Gfeneral Halleck — a stout, 
heavy-faced, rather stupid -looking ofRcer, who wore 



1861.] Rudeness of General Halleck. 211 

civilian's dress, and resembled a "well-to-do tradesman. 
On the 20tli of IS'ovember appeared his sliam'eful General 
Order T^mnber Three : 

"It has been represented that important information respecting the 
nnjnhers and condition of our forces is conveyed to the enemy by means 
of fugitive slaves who are. admitted within our lines. In order to remedy 
this evil, it is directed that no such persons be hereafter permitted to en- 
ter the lines of any camp, or of any forces on the march, and that any 
now within our lines be immediately excluded therefrom." 

Its inhumanity outraged the moral sense, and its 
falsehood the common sense, of the country. The ne- 
groes were uniformly friends to our soldiers. After dili- 
gent inquiry from every leading officer of my acquaint- 
ance, I could not learn a single instance of treachery. To 
the cruelty of turning the slave away, Halleck added the 
dishonesty of slandering him. 

When Charles James Fox was canvassing for Parlia- 
liament, one of his auditors said to him : 

" Sir, I admire your talents, but d — n your politics!" 

Fox retorted: "Sir, I admire your frankness, but 
d — n your manners !" 

Many who had official business with Halleck uttered 
similar maledictions. To his visitors he was brusque to 
surliness. Dr. Holmes says, with great truth, that all 
men are bores when we do not want them. Like all 
public characters, Halleck was beset by those grievous 
dispensations of Providence. But a general in command 
of half a continent ought, at least, to have the manners 
of a gentleman ; and he was sometimes so insulting that 
his legitimate visitors would have been justified in kick- 
ing him down stairs. N'one of our high officials equaled 
him in rudeness, except Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War. 

In January, as a Government steamer approached the 



212 A Droll Flag of Truce. [isgs. 

landing at Commerce, Missouri, two women on shorfe 
shouted to tke pilot : 

"Don't land I Jeff. Thompson and his soldiers are 
here waiting for you." 

The redoubtaWe guerrilla, with fifty men, instantly 
sprang from behind a wood-pile and fired a volley. 
Twenty-six bullets entered the cabin of the retreating 
boat ; but, thanks to the loyal women, no person was 
killed or captured. 

One day, a seedy individual in soiled gray walked into 
Halleck's private room at the Planter's House, in St. 
Louis, and, with the military salute, thus addressed him : 

"Sir, I am an officer of General Price's army, and 
have brought you a letter under flag of truce." 

" Where's your flag of truce ?" growled Halleck. 

"Here," was the prompt reply, and the Rebel pulled 
a dirty white rag from his pocket ! 

He had entered our lines, and come one hundred and 
fifty miles, without detection, passing pickets, sentinels, 
guards, and provost-marshals. Halleck, who plumed 
himself on his organizing capacity and rigid police regu- 
lations, was not a little chagrined. He sent back the 
unique messenger with a letter, assuring Price that he 
would shoot as a spy any one repeating the attempt. 



1862.] Rebel Guerrillas Outwitted. 213 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm by erecting a grammar- 
«choul. — Kino Henky VI. 

O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear, 
To wake an earthquake 1 

— Tempest. 

In January, Colonel Lawson, of the Missouri Union 
forces, was captured by a dozen Rebels, who, after some 
threats of hanging, decided to release him upon parole. 
Not one of them could read or write a line. Lawson, 
requested by them to make out his own parole, drew up 
and signed an agreement, pledging himself never to take 
up arms against the United States of America, or give aid 
and comfort to its enemies ! Upon this novel promise he 
was set at liberty. 

On the 3d of February a journalistic friend tele- 
graphed me from Cairo : 

"You can't come too soon: take the first train." 

Immediately obeying the summons, I found that 
Commodore Foote had gone up the Tennessee River 
with the new gunboats. The accompanying la^nd forces 
were under the command of an Illinois general named 
Grant, of whom the country knew only the following : 

Making a reconnoissance to Belmont, Missouri, oppo- 
site Columbus, Kentucky, he had ventured too far, when 
the enemy opened on him. Yielding to the fighting temp- 
tation, he made a lively resistance, until compelled to re- 
treat, leaving behind his dead and wounded. Jefferson 
Davis officially proclaimed it a great Confederate success. 



214 Expedition to Fort Henry. [1862. 

and Rebel newspapers grew merry over Grant's bad gen- 
eralship, expressing the wish that he might long lead the 
Yankee armies ! 

■ " "We, ignorant of ourselves, 



Beg often for our own harms; so find we profit 
By losing of our prayers." 

As the gunboats had never been tested, intense inter- 
est was felt in their success. Approaching Fort Henry, 
three went forward to reconnoiter. At the distance of 
two miles and a half, a twenty-four pounder rifled ball 
penetrated the state-room of Captain Porter, commanding 
the Essex, passing under his table, and cutting off the feet 
of a pair of stockings which hung against the ceiling as 
neatly as shears would have cut them. 

"Pretty good shot!" said Porter. "Now we will 
show them ours." And he dropped a nine-inch Dahl- 
gren shell right into the fort. 

The next day, a large number of torpedoes, each con- 
taining sefenty-five pounds of powder, were fished up 
from the bottom of the river. The imprudent tongue of 
an angry Rebel woman revealed their whereabouts. 
Prophesying that the whole fleet would be blown to 
atoms, she was compelled to divulge what she knew, or 
be confined in the guard-house. In mortal terror she 
gave the desired information. The torpedoes were found 
wet and harmless. Commodore Foote predicted, 

" I can take that fort in about an hour and a half." 

The night Avas excessively rainy and severe upon our 
boys in blue in their forest bivouacs ; but in the well- 
furnished cabin of General Grant's steamer, we found 
"going to war" an agreeable novelty. 

At mid-day on the 6th, Foote fired his first shot, at the 
distance of seventeen hundred yards. Then he slowly 



1862.] Its Capture by Commodore Foote. 215 

approaclied the fort with his entire fleet, until within four 
hundred yards. The Rebel fire was very severe ; but he 
determined to vindicate the iron-clads or to sink them in 
the Tennessee. The wood- work of his flag-ship was rid- 
dled by thirty-one shots, but her iron plating turned off the 
balls like haH. All the boats were more or less damaged ; 
but they fully established their usefulness, and' their offi- 
cers and men behaved with the greatest gallantry. One 
poor fellow on the Essex, terribly scalded by the burst- 
ing of a steam drum, learning that the fort was captured, 
sprung from his bunk, ran up the hatchway, and cheered 
untU he fell senseless upon the deck. He died the same 
night. 

With several fellow-correspondents, I witnessed the 
fight from the top of a high tree, upon the river-bank, be- 
tween the fortification and the gun-boats. There was little 
to be seen but smoke. Foote' s prediction proved correct. 
After he had fired about six hundred shots, just one hour 
and fifteeu minutes from the beginning, the colors of Fort 
Henry were struck, and the gunboats trembled with the 
cheers and huzzas of our men. 

The Rebel infantry, numbering four thousand, es- 
caped. Grant's forces, detained by the mud, came up 
t<f)0 late to surround them. Brigadier-General Lloyd 
Tilghman, commanding, and the immediate garrison, 
were captured. 

In the barracks we found camp-fires blazing, dinners 
boiling, and half-made biscuits still in the pans. Pistols, 
muskets, bowie-knives, books, tables partially set for 
dinner, half-written letters, playing-cards, blankets, and 
carpet-sacks were scattered about. 

Our soldiers ransacked trunks, arrayed themselves in 
Rebel coats, hats, and shirts, armed themselves ^with 
Rebel revolvers, stuffed their pockets with Rebel books 



216 " A Delighted Negress. [I862. 

and miniatures, and some wexe soon staggering under 
heavy loads of Rebel wMsky. 

From the quarters of one officer, I abstracted a small 
Confederate flag ; the daguerreotype of a female face so 
regular and classic that, without close inspection, it was 
difficult to believe it taken from life ; a long tress of 
brown hair, and a package of elegantly written letters, 
full of a sister's affection. A year afterward I was able 
to return these family mementoes to their owner in Jack- 
son, Mississippi. 

Our shots had made great havoc. Carpet-sacks, trunks, 
and tables were torn in pieces, walls and roofs were 
pierced with holes large enough for a man to creep 
through, and cavities plowed in the ground which would 
conceal a flour-barrel. A female Marius among the ruins, 
in the form of an old negress, stood rubbing her hands 
with glee. 

" You seem to have had hot work here, aunty." 

"Lord, yes, mass'r, we did just dat! De big balls, 
dey come whizzing and tearing 'bout, and I thought de 
las' judgment was cum, sure." 

" Where are all your soldiers ?" 

"Lord A' mighty knows. Dey jus' runned away 
like turkeys — nebber fired a gun." 

"How many were there ?" 

"Derewas one Arkansas regiment over dere where 
you see de tents, a Mississippi regiment dere, another 
dere, two Tennessee regiments here, and lots more over 
de river." 

"Why didn't you run with them ?" 

"I was sick, you see" (she could only speak in a 
whisper) ; "besides, I wasn't afraid — only ob de shots. 
I just thought if dey didn't kill me I was all right." 

" Where is General Tilghman ?" 



1862.] Scenes in the Captured Fortress. 217 

" You folks has gbt him — him and de whole garrison 
inside de fort." 

" You don't seem to feel very badly about it." 

" Not berry, mass'r !" — ^with a fresh rub of the hands 
and a grin all over her sable face. 

In the fort, the magazine was torn open, the guns 
completely shattered, and the ground stained with 
blood, brains, and fragments of flesh. Under gray blan- 
kets were six corpses, one with the head torn off and 
the trunk completely blackened with powder ; others 
with legs severed and breasts opened in ghastly wounds. 
The survivors, stretched upon cots, rent the air with 
groans. 

The captured Rebel officers, in a profusion of gold 
lace, were taken to Grant's head-quarters. Tilghman 
was good-looking, broad-shouldered, with the pompous 
manner of the South. Commodore Foote asked him : 

"How could you fight against the old flag?" 

"It was hard," he replied, "but I had to go with 
my people." 

Presently a Chicago reporter inquired of him : 

"How do you spell your name, General?" 

"Sir," replied Tilghman, with indescribable pom- 
posity, "if General Grant wishes to use my name in his 
official dispatches, I have no objection ; but, sir, I do 
not wish to appear at all in this matter in any newspaper 
report." 

"I merely asked it," persisted the journalist, "for 
the list of prisoners captured." 

Tilghman, whose name should have been Turvey- 
drop, replied, with a lofty air and a majestic wave of the 
hand : 

" You will oblige me, sir, by not giving my name in 
any newspaper connection whatever !" 



218 Commodore Foote in the Pulpit. [1862. 

One of the Rebel officers was rgminded of the pre- 
dominance of Union sentiments among the people about 
Fort Henry. 

"True, sir," was his reply. "It is always so in 
these hilly countries. You see, these d — d Hoosiers 
don't know any better. For the genuine southern feel- 
ing, sir, you must go among the gentlemen — ^the rich 
people. You won't find any Tories there." 

The gunboats returned to Cairo for repairs. On the 
next Sunday morning, the pastor of the Cairo Presby- 
terian Church failing to arrive. Commodore Foote was 
induced to conduct the services. From the text : 

"Let not your hearts be troubled; ye believe in God; believe 
also in me," 

he preached an excellent practical discourse, urging that 
human happiness depends upon integrity, pure living, 
and conscientious performance of duty. 

The land forces remained near Fort Henry. A few 
days after the battle, I stepped into General Grant's 
head-quarters to bid him good-by, as I was about start- 
ing for New York. 

" You had better wait a day or two," he said. 

"Why?" 

"Because I am going over to capture Fort Donel- 
son to-morrow." 

' ' How strong is it ?" 

" We have not been able to ascertain exactly, but I 
think we can take it. At all events, we can try." 

The hopelessly muddy roads and the falling snow 
were terrible to our troops, who had no tents ; but Grant 
marched to the fort. On Wednesday he skirmished and 
placed his men in position ; on Thursday, Friday, and 
Saturday, he fought from daylight until dark. On Sat- 



1863.] The Capture of Fort Donelson. 219 

iirday night, tlie sanguine General Pillow, telegraphed to 
Nashville : 

" The day is ours. I have repulsed the eneiiiy at all points, but I 
want re-enforcements." 

Before dawn on Sunday, the negro servant of a Con- 
federate staff officer escaped into our lines, and was 
taken to General Grant. He insisted that the Rebel 
commanders were consulting ahout surrender, and that 
Floyd's men were already deserting the fort. A few 
hours later came a letter from Buckner, suggesting the 
appointment of commissioners to adjust terms of capitu- 
lation. Grant wrote in answer : 

" I have no terms but unconditional surrender. I propose to raovo 
immediately upon your works." 

Buckner' s response, exquisitely characteristic of the 
E-ehels, regretfully accepted what he described as 
Grant's "ungenerous and unchivalrous terms!" So 
the North was electrified by a success which recalled 
the great battles of Napoleon. 

Grant first invested the garrison with tliirteen thou- 
sand men. The enemy' s force was twenty-two thousand. 
For two days. Grant' s little command laid siege to this 
much larger army, which was protected by ample forti- 
fications. At the end of the second day, Grant received 
re-enforcements, swelling his forces to twenty-six thou- 
sand. 

From three to four thousand Rebels, of Floyd' s com- 
mand, escaped from the fort ; others escaped on the way 
to Cairo, and several thousand were killed or wounded j 
but Grant delivered, at Cairo, upward of fifteen thou- 
sand eight hundred prisoners. 

I was in Chicago when these captives, on their way 



220 Army and Navy Officers Contrasted. [1862. 

to Camp Douglas, passed through the streets in sad pro- 
cession. Motley was the only wear. A few privates had 
a stripe on the pantaloons and wore gray military caps ; 
but most, in slouched hats and garments of gray or but- 
ternut, made no attempt at uniform. Some had the 
long hair and cadaverous faces of the extreme South ; 
but under the broad-brimmed hats of the majority, 
appeared the full, coarse features of the working classes 
of Missouri, Tennessee, and Arkansas. The Chicago 
citizens, who crowded the streets, were guilty of no 
taunts or rude words toward the prisoners. 

Columbus, Kentucky, twenty miles below Cairo, on 
the highest bluffs of the Mississippi, was called the 
Gribraltar of the West, and expected to be the scene of 
a great battle. 

On the 4tli of March, a naval and land expedition 
was ready to attack it. Before leaving Cairo, hundreds 
of workmen crowded the gunboats, repairing damages 
received on the Tennessee River — 

" With busy hammers closing rivets up, 
And giving dreadful notes of preparation." 

Commodore Foote, lame from his Donelson wound, 
hobbled on board upon crutches. A great National flag 
was taken along. 

"Don't forget that," said the commodore. "Fight 
or no fight, we must raise it over Columbus !" 

The leading commanders of the flotilla were from the 
regular navy — quiet and unassuming, with no nonsense 
about them. They were far freer from envy and jeal- 
ousy than army officers. Before the war, the latter had 
been stationed for years at frontier posts, hundreds of 
miles beyond civilization, with no resources except 



1862.] The "Gibraltar op the West." 221 

drinking and gambling, notliing to excite National feel- 
ing or prick the bubble of their State pride. Karal 
officers, going all over the "world, had acquired the lib- 
erality which only travel imparts, and learned that, 
abroad, their country Was not known as Virginia or Mis- 
sissippi, but the United States of America. With them, 
it was the Nation first, and the State afterward. Hence, 
while nearly all southerners holding commissions in the 
regular army joined the Rebellion, the navy almost 
unanimously remained loyal. 

The low, flat, black iron-clads crept down the river 
like enormous turtles. Each had attending it a little 
pocket edition of a steamboat, in the shape of a tug, 
capable of carrying fifty or sixty men, and moving up 
the strong current twelve miles an hour. They were 
constantly puffing about among the unwieldy vessels 
like breathless little errand-boys. 

Nearing Columbus, we found that the Rebels had 
evacuated it twelve hours before. The town was already 
held by an enterprising scouting party of the Second 
Illinois Cavalry, who had unearthed and raised an old 
National fiag. Our colors waved from the Rebel Gi- 
braltar, and the last Confederate soldier had abandoned 
Kentucky. 

The enemy left in hot haste. Half-burned barracks, 
chairs, beds, tables, cooking- stoves, letters, charred gun- 
carriages, bent musket-barrels, bayonets, and provi- 
sions were promiscuously lying about. 

The main fortifications, on a plateau one hundred 
and fifty feet high, mounted eighty-three guns, com- 
manding the river for nearly three miles. Here, and in 
the auxiliary works, we captured one hundred and fifty 
pieces of artillery. 

Fastened to the bluff, we found one end of a great 



222 Scenes in Columbus, Kentucky. [1862. 

chain cable, compbsed of seven-eigMhs inch iron, which 
the brilliant Gideon J. Pillow had stretched across 
the river, to prevent the passage of our gunboats ! It 
was worthy of the man who, in Mexico, dug his ditch 
on the wrong side of the parapet. The momentum of an 
iron-clad would have snapped it like a pipe-stem, had 
not the current of the river broken it long before. 

We found, also, enormous piles of torpedoes, which 
the Rebels had declared would annihilate the Yankee 
fleet. They became a standing jest among our officers, 
who termed them original members of the Peace Society, 
and averred that the rates of marine insurance imme- 
diately declined whenever the companies learned that 
torpedoes had been planted in the waters where the 
boats were to run ! 

In the abandoned post-office I collected a bushel of 
Rebel newsf)apers, dating back for several weeks. At 
first the Memphis journals extravagantly commended the 
South Carolina planters for burning their cotton, after the 
capture of Port Royal, and urged universal imitation of 
their example. They said : — 

" Let the whole South be made a Moscow ; let our enemies find noth- 
ing but blackened ruins to reward their invasion !" 

But when the capture of Donelson rendered the 
early fall of Memphis probable, the same journals sud- 
denly changed their tone. They argued that Moscow 
was not a parallel case ; that it would be highly injudi- 
cious to fire their city, as the Yankees, if they did take 
it, would hold it only for a short time ; that those who 
urged applying the torch should be punished as dema- 
gogues and public enemies ! But they abounded in fran- 
tic appeals like the following from Tlie A'GalancTie : 

*'For the sake of honor and manhood, we trust no youn^ unmarried 



1862.] Extracts from Rebel Newspapers. 223 

man will suffer himself to be drafted. He would become a by-word, a 
scoff, a burning shame to his sex and his State. If young men in panta- 
loons will sit behind desks, counters, and molasses-barrels, let the girls 
present them with the garment proper to their peaceable spirits. He 
that would go to the field, but cannot, should be aided to do so ; he tbat 
can go. but will not, should be made to do so." 

Tlie AriolancTie was a great advocate of wliat is 
termed the "aggressive policy," declaring that : 

" The victorious armies of the South should be precipitated upon the 
North. Her chief cities should be seized or reduced to ashes ; her ar- 
mies scattered, her States subjugated, and her people compelled to defray 
the expenses of a war which they have wickedly commenced and obsti- 
nately continued. * * * Fearless and invincible, a race of warriors 
rivaling any that ever followed the standard of an Alexander, a Caesar, 
or a Napoleon, the southerners have the power and the will to carry this 
war into the enemy's country. Let, then, the lightnings of a nation's 
wrath scathe our foul oppressors ! Let the thunder-bolts of war be 
hurled back upon our dastardly invaders, from the Atlantic to the Pa- 
cific, until the recognition of southern independence shall be extorted 
from the reluctant North, and terms of peace be dictated by a victo- 
rious southern army at New York or Chicago." 

General Jeff. Thompson, a literary Missouri hush- 
whacker, was termed the ' ' Swamp Fox' ' and the ' ' Marion 
of the Southern Revolution." I found one of his effu- 
sions, entitled "Home Again," in that once decorous 
journal. The New Orleans Picayune. Its transition from 
the pathetic to the profane is a curious anticlimax. 

"My dear wife waits my coming, 

My children lisp ray name, 
■ And kind friends bid me welcome 
To my own home again. 
My father's grave lies on the hill, 

My boys sleep in the vale ; 
I love each rock and murmuring rill, 
Each mountain, hill, and dale. 



224 Inmates of the Union Hospitals. [1862. 

I'll suffer hardships, toil, and paid, 

For the good time ante to come ; 
I'll battle long that I may gain 

My freedom and my home. 
I will return, though foes may stand 

Disputing every rod | 
My own dear home, my native land, 

I'll win yoU yet, by - — > 1" ^ 

Our hospitals at Mound City, Illinois, contained four- 
teen hundred inmates. A walk along the double rows 
of cots in the long wards revealed the sadder phase 
of war. Here was a typhoid-fever patient, motionless 
and unconscious, the light forever gone out from his 
glazed eyes ; here a lad, pale and attenuated, who, with 
a shattered leg, had lain upon this weary couch for 
four months. There was a Tennessean, who, abandon- 
ing his family, came stealthily hundreds of miles to 
enlist under the Stars and Stripes, with perfect faith in 
their triumph, and had lost a leg at Bonelson ; an Illi- 
noisan, from the same "battle, with a ghastly aperture in 
the face, still blackened with powder from his enemy' s 
rifle ; a young officer in neat dressing-gown, furnished 
by the United States Sanitary Commission, sitting up 
reading a newspaper, but with the sleeve of his left 
arm limp and empty ; marines terribly scalded by the 
bursting boiler of the Essex at Fort Henry, some of whose 
whole bodies were one continuous scar. Sick, wounded, 
and convalescent were alike cheerful ; and twenty -five 
Sisters of Mercy, worthy of their name, moved noise- 
lessly among them, ministering to their wants. 



1862.] Starting down the Mississippi. 225 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

ITow would I give a thousand fnrlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground. The ■wills 
above be done! but I would fain die a dry death. — Tempest. 

If it should thunder as it did before, I know not where to lay my head. — Ibid. 

0]sr the 14t]i of March, the flotilla again started down 
the Mississippi, steaming slowly by Columlbus, where 
Venus followed close upon Mars, in the form of two wo- 
men disbursing pies and some other commodities to 
sailors and soldiers. The next day we anchored above 
Island Number Ten, where Beauregard had built formi- 
dable fortifications. 

A fast little Rebel gunboat, called the Grampus, ran 
screeching away from the range of our guns. Below her 
we could read with glasses the names painted upon the 
many steamers lying in front of the enemy' s works, and 
see the guns upon a great floating battery. 

Our gunboats fired one or two experimental shots, 
and the mortar-rafts, with tremendous explosions, began 
to throw their ten-inch shells, weighing two hundred and 
fifty pounds each. Great results were expected from 
these enormous mortars, but they proved inaccurate. 
Our shots fell among the batteries and steamboats of the 
enemy, throwing up clouds of dirt and sheets of water.' 
The Rebel guns replied with great puff's of smoke ; but 
their missiles, bounding along the river, fell three-quar- 
ters of a mile short. 

Light skirmishing in closer range continued for seve- 
ral days. My own quarters were on the Benton, Com- 
modore Foote' s flagship. She was the largest of the iron- 

15 



226 Bombardment of Island Number Ten. [I862. 

clads, one liundred and eiglity-tliree feet Iby seventy, and 
contained quite a little community of two hundred and 
forty men. 

Standing upon, the hurricane roof, directly over our 
iDOw-guns, "we caught the first glimpse of each shot, a few 
feet fi'om the muzzle, and watched it rushing through the 
air like a round, "black meteor, till it exploded two or 
three miles away. After we saw the warning puif of 
smoke, the time seemed very long hefore each Rehel shot 
struck the water near us ; hut no more than ten or fifteen 
seconds ever elapsed. 

When ready to attack the hatteries. Commodore Foote 
said to me : 

" You had hetter take your place with the other cor- 
respondents, upon a transport in the rear, out of range. 
Should any accident hefall you here, censure would "be 
cast upon me for permitting you to stay," 

Haunted hy a resistless curiosity to learn exactly how 
one feels under fire, I persuaded him to let me remain. 

Two other iron-clads, the St. Louis and the Cincinnati, 
were lashed upon either side of the Benton. Hammocks 
were taken down and piled in front of the hollers to pro- 
tect them ; the hose was attached to reservoirs of hot 
water, designed for hoarders in close conflict ; surgeons 
scrutinized the edges of their instruments, while our 
triple floating battery moved slowly down, with the other 
iron-clads a short distance in the rear. We opened fire, 
and the balls of the enemy soon replied, now and then 
striking our boats. 

A deafening noise from the St. Louis shook every 
plank beneath our feet. A moment after, a dozen men 
rushed upon her deck, their faces so blackened by 
powder that they would have been taken for negroes. 
Two were carrying the lifeless form of a third ; several 



1862.] "Here comes another Shot." 227 

otliers were wounded. Through the din of the cannon- 
ade, one of her crew shouted to us from a port-hole that 
an old forty-two pounder had exploded, killing and mu- 
tilating several men. 

We obtained the "best view from the hurricane deck 
of the Benton, where there could he no special dan- 
ger from splinters. While we stood there, one of the 
party was constantly on the look-out, and, seeing a puff 
of smoke curl up from the Rebel battery, he would 
shout : 

"Here comes another !" 

Then we all dropped upon our faces behind the iron- 
plated pilot-house, which rose from the deck like a great 
umbrella. The screaming shot would sometimes strike 
our bows, but usually pass over, falling into the water 
behind us. 

While the Rebels fired from one battery, there was 
just sufficient excitement to make it interesting ; but 
when they opened with two others, stationed at different 
points in the bend of the river, their range completely 
covered the pilot-house. Dropping behind that shelter 
to avoid the missiles in front, we were exposed to a hail 
of shot from the side. Thereupon the commodore per- 
emptorily ordered us below, and we went down upon 
the gun-deck. 

A correspondent of Tlie Cliicago Times, who chanced 
to be on board, took a position in the stern of the boat, 
under the impression that it was entirely safe. A mo- 
ment after he came rushing in with blanched face and drip- 
ping clothing. A shot had struck within three feet of 
him, glancing into the river, and drenching every thing 
in the vicinity. 

That long gun-deck was alive with action. The ex- 
ecutive ofiicer, Lieutenant Bishop, a gallant young fel- 



228 How One feels under Fire. [1862. 

low, fresh from the naval school, superintended every 
thing. Swarthy gunners manned the pieces ; little pow- 
der-boys rushed to and fro with ammunition, and hur- 
rying men crowded the long compartment. 

There came a tremendous crashing of glass, iron, and 
wood ! An eight-inch solid shot, penetrating the half-inch 
iron plating and the five-inch timber, near the bows, as 
if they were paper, buried itself in the deck, and re- 
bounded, striking the roof. In that manner it danced 
along the entire length of the boat, through the cabin, the 
ward-room, the machinery, the pantry — where it smashed 
a great deal of crockery — until, at the extreme stern, it 
fell and remained upon the commodore's writing-desk, 
crushing in the lid. 

A moment before the noisy, agile visitor arrived, the 
whole deck seemed crowded with busy men. A moment 
after, I looked again. A score of undismayed fellows 
were comfortably blowing splinters from their mouths 
and beards, and brushing them from their hair and faces ; 
but, by a fortunate accident, not a single one of them was 
hurt. 

As the shot screamed along very near me, my curi- 
osity diminished. I had a dim perception that nothing 
in this gunboat life could become me like the leaving of 
it. A mulatto cabin-boy, whose face turned almost 
white when the missile tore through the boat, shared my 
sensations. 

" I wish that I was out of it," he said, confidentially ; 
" but I put my own neck into tliis yoke, and I have got 
to wear it." 

Toward evening, some of the enemy' s batteries were 
silent, and we idlers once more sought the hurricane 
deck, dodging behind the pilot-house whenever the 
smoke puffed from the hostile guns. Once, some one 



18G2.] Fifty Shots to the Minute. 229 

cried, "There slie comes!" and we dropped as usual. 
Looking up, I noticed a second engineer standing beside 
me. 

"Lie down, Blakely !" I said, sharply. 

He replied laughingly, with his hands in his pockets : 

"0 no, there is no need of it; one is just as safe 
here." 

T\niile he spoke, the Rebel shot passed within fifteen 
inches of his bloodless face, shaved a sheet-iron venti- 
lator, tore through the chimney, severed a large wrought- 
iron rod, struck the deck, plowed through a half-inch 
iron plate, neatly cutting it in two, passed under the next 
J)late, and then came out again, with its force spent, and 
rolled languidly against a sky-light. When he felt the rush 
of air, Blakely bent back almost double, and thereafter he 
was among the first to seek the shelter of the pilot-house. 

From the mortars and the guns on both sides, there 
were sometimes fifty shots to the minute. The jarrings 
and explosions induced head-ache for hours afterward. 
The results of the day' s bombardment were not very san- 
guinary. Our iron-clads were struck scores of times, but 
few men were injured. This desultory fighting was 
kept up for two or three weeks. 

Meanwhile, General Pope, moving across the country 
from Cairo with great enterprise and activity, had de- 
feated the Rebels and captured their forts at JSTew Mad- 
rid, on the Missouri shore of the Mississippi, eight miles 
below Island ISTumber Ten. He thus held the river in 
the rear of the enemy, preventing steamboats from as- 
cending to them ; but he had not even a skiff or a raft 
in vrhich he could cross to the Tennessee bank, and 
reach the rear of the fortifications. How to supply him 
with boats was the great problem. 

Pope was anxious that the commodore should send 



230 Daily Life on a Gunboat. [is62. 

one of the iron-clads to Mm, past tlie Relbel fortifications. 
Foote liesitated, as running "batteries was then an untried 
experiment. 

Pope had an active, hard-working Illinois engineer 
regiment, which began cutting a canal, to open commu- 
nication between the flotilla and JSTew Madrid ; and we 
waited for results. 

I found life on the Benton full of novelty. More than 
half of her crew were old salts, and the discipline was the 
same as on a man-of-war. Half-hour bells marked the 
passage of time. Every morning the deck was holy- 
stoned to its utmost possibilities of whiteness. Through 
each day we heard the shrill whistle of the boatswain, 
amid hoarse calls of "All hands to quarters," " Stand by 
the hammocks !'' etc. 

Even the negro servants caught the naval expressions. 
One of them, playing on the guitar and singing, broke 
down from too high a pitch. 

" Too much elevation there," said he. " I must de- 
press a little." 

"Yes," replied another. "Start again on the gun- 
deck." 

Exchanging shots with the enemy grew monotonous. 
Heading, wiiting, or playing chess in the ward-room, 
we carelessly noted the reports from the Rebel batteries, 
and some officer from the deck walked in, saying : 

"There's another !" 

"Where did it strike?" asked some one, quite care 
lessly. 

" ISTear us," or " Just over us in the woods," would 
be the reply ; and the idlers returned to their employ- 
ments. 

My own state-room was within six feet of a thirty- 
two pounder, which fired every fifteen minutes during 



1862.] The Carondelet Runs the Batteries. 231 

the day. The explosions in no wise disturbed my after- 
noon naps. 

On Sunday mornings, after the weekly muster, the 
men in clean hlue shirts and tidy clothing, and the offi- 
cers, in full uniform, with all their bravery of blue and 
gold, assembled on the gun-deck for religious service. 
Hat in hand, they stood in a half circle around the com- 
modore, who, behind a high stool, upon which the TsTa- 
tional flag was spread, read the comprehensive prayer 
for "All who are afflicted in mind, body, or estate," or 
acknowledged that " We have done the things which we 
ought not to have done, and left undone the things which 
we ought to have done." 

Among the groups of worshipers were seen the ga- 
ping mouths of the black guns, and the pyramidal piles 
of grape and canister ready for use. During prayer, the 
boat was often shaken by the discharge of a mortar, 
which made the neighboring woods resound with its 
long, rolling echoes. The commodore extemporized a 
brief, simple address on Christian life and duty; then 
the men were "piped down" and dispersed. 

On a dark April night, during a terrific thunder- 
shower, the iron-clad Carondelet started to run the 
gantlet. The undertaking was deemed hazardous in the 
extreme. The commodore gave to her commander writ- 
ten instructions how to destroy her, should she become 
disabled ; and solemnly commended him to the mercy 
and protection of Almighty God. 

The Carondelet crept noiselessly down through the 
darkness. When the Rebels discovered her, they opened 
with shot, shell, and bullets. All her ports were closed, 
and she did not fire a gun. It was too dark to guide her 
by the insufficient glimpses of the shore obtained from the 
little peep-holes of her pilot-house. Mr. D. R. Hoell, an 



232 Wonderful Feat of Pope's Engineers. [1862. 

old river pilot, yolunteered to remain unprotected on the 
open upper deck, among the rattling shots and the sing- 
ing iDuUets, to give information to his partners within. 
His daring was promptly rewarded Idj an appointment as 
lieutenant in the navy. 

Upon the flag-ship above intense anxiety prevailed. 
After an hour, which seemed a day, from far down the 
river boomed two heavy reports ; then there was silence, 
then* two shots again. All gave a sigh of relief. This 
was the signal that the Carondelet had lived through the 
terrible ordeal ! 

The Rebels had made themselves very merry over 
Pope's canal. But, at daylight on the second morning 
after this feat of the iron-clad, they saw four little stern- 
wheel steamboats lying in front of Pope's camps. The 
canal was a success ! In two weeks the indefatigable en- 
gineers had brought these steamers from Foote' s flotilla, 
sixteen miles, through corn-fields, woods, and swamps, 
cutting channels from one bayou to another, and felling 
heavy timber all the way. They were compelled to saw 
off hundreds of huge trees, three feet below the water's 
edge. It was one of the most creditable feats of the 
war. 

" Let all the world take notice," said a Confederate newspaper, 
" that the southern troops are gentlemen, and must he suhjected to no 
drudgery." , , 

The loyal troops, like these Illinois engineers, were 
men of skilled industry, proud to know themselves 
"kings of two hands." 

The Confederates felt that Birnam wood had come to 
Dunsinane. Declaring that it was useless to fight men 
who would deliberately float gunboats by the very 
muzzles of their heavy guns, and could run steamers six> 



1862.] The Rebels Effectively Caged. 233 

teen miles over dry land, they "began to evacuate Island 
ISTumlDer Ten. But Pope had already ferried the greater 
part of his army across the river, and he replied to my 
inquiries : 

" I will have every mother's son of them !" 

He kept his promise. The Rebels were caged. They 
fled in haste across the country to Tiptonville, where 
they supposed their steamboats awaited them. Instead, 
they found two of our iron-clads lying in front of the 
town, and learned that Pope held the river even ten 
miles below. The trap was complete. On their front 
was Tiptonville, with the cavernous eyes of the Ca- 
rondelet and the Pittsburgh ominously scrutinizing them. 
At their left was an impassable line of lake and slough ; 
at their right a dry region, bounded by the river, and 
held by our troops ; in their rear. Pope' s army was hotly 
pursuing them. Some leaped into the lake or plunged 
into the swamps, trying to escape. Three times the Re- 
bel forces drew up in line of battle ; but they were too 
much demoralized to fight, and, after a weary night, they 
surrendered unconditionally. 

At sunrise, long files of stained, bedraggled soldiers, in 
butternut and jeans, began to move sadly into a great 
corn-field, and stack their arms. The prisoners numbered 
twenty-eight hundred. "We captured upward of a hun- 
dred heavy guns, twenty-five field-pieces, half a dozen 
steamboats, and immense supplies of provisions and am- 
munition. The victory was won with trifiing loss of 
life, and reflected the highest credit both upon the land 
and water forces. The army and the navy, fitting to- 
gether like the two blades of the scissors, had cut the 
gordian knot. 

Pope telegraphed to Halleck that, if steamboats 
could be furnished. him, in four days he would plant the 



234 The Noethern Flood Rolling on. [1862. 

Stars and Stripes in Mempliis. Halleck, as usual, en- 
grossed in strategy, declined to supply the transporta- 
tion. 

But the great northern flood rolled on toward the 
Gulfj and in its resistless torrent was no refluent wave. 



1862.] The Battle of Shiloh. 235 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Of sallies and retires; of trenches, tents. 
Of palisadoes, frontiers, ijarapets ; 
Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin; 
And all tlio currents of a beady fight. 

Kino Hkney IV. 

Simultaneously with the capture of Island Num- 
ber Ten occurred the battle of Shiloh. The first reports 
were very wild, stating our loss at seventeen thousand, 
and asserting that the Union commander had been disas- 
trously surprised, and hundreds of men bayoneted in 
their tents. It was even added that Grant was intox- 
icated during the action. This last fiction showed the 
tenacity of a bad name. Years before. Grant was intem- 
perate ; but he had abandoned the habit soon after the 
beginning of the war. 

General Albert Sydney Johnson was killed, and 
Beauregard ultimately driven back, leaving his dead 
and wounded in our hands ; but Jefierson Davis, with 
the usual Rebel policy, announced in a special message 
to the Confederate Congress : 

" It has pleased Almiglity God again to crown the Confederate arms 
with a glorious and decided victory over onr invaders." 

I went up the Tennessee River by a boat crowded 
with representatives — chiefly women — of the Sanitary 
Commissions of Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago. 

One evening, religious services were held in the 



236 The Reverend Robert Colyer. [1862. 

calbin. A clergyman exhorted his hearers, when they 
should arrive at the bloody field, to minister to the spir- 
itual as well as physical wants of the sufferers. With 
special infelicity, he added : 

"Many of them have doubtless been wicked men; 
but you can, at least, remind them of divine mercy, and 
tell them the story of the thief on the cross," 

The next speaker, a quiet gentleman, wearing the 
blouse of a private soldier, after some remarks about 
practical religion, added: 

" I can not agree with the last brother. I believe we 
shall best serve the souls of our wounded soldiers by 
ministering, for the present, simply to their bodies. For 
my own part, I feel that he who has fallen fighting for 
our country — for your Cause and mine — is more of a 
man than I am. He may have been wicked; but I 
think room will be found for him among the many man- 
sions above. I should be ashamed to tell him the story 
of the thief on the cross." 

Hearty, spontaneous clapping of hands through the 
crowded cabin followed this sentiment — a rather unu- 
sual demonstration for a prayer-meeting. The speaker 
was the Rev. Robert Colyer, of Chicago. 

With officers who had participated in the battle, I 
visited every part of the field. The ground was broken 
by sharp hills, deep ravines, and dense timber, which 
the eye could not penetrate. 

The reports of a surprise were substantially untrue. 
No man was bayoneted in his tent, or anywhere else, 
according to the best evidence I could obtain. 

But the statements, said to come from Grant and 
Sherman, that they could not have been better prepared, 
had they known that Beauregard designed to attack, 
were also untrue. Our troops were not encamped ad- 



1862.] A Union Orator Captured. 237 

VantageoTisly for battle. Raw and unarmed regiments 
Vrere on the extreme front, which, was not picketed or 
scouted as it should have heen in the face of an enemy. 

Beauregard attacked on Sunday morning at daylight. 
The Rebels greatly outnumbered the Unionists, and im- 
petuously forced them back. Grant's army was entirely 
western. It contained representatives of nearly every 
county in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. 

Partially unprepared, and steadily driven back, often 
ill commanded and their organizations broken, the men 
fought with wonderful tenacity. It was almost a hand- 
to-hand conflict. Confederates and Loyalists, from be- 
hind trees, within thirty feet of each other, kept up a 
hot fire, shouting respectively, " Bull Run !" and "Don- 
elson!" 

Prentiss' shattered division, in that dense forest, was 
flanked before its commander knew that the supporting 
forces — McClernand on his right and Hurlbut on his 
left — had been driven back. Messengers sent to him by 
those commanders were kiUed. During a lull in the 
firing, Prentiss was lighting his cigar from the pipe of a 
soldier when he learned that the enemy was on both 
sides of him, half a mile in his rear. With the remnant 
of his command he was captured. 

Remaining in Rebel hands for six months, he was 
enabled to indulge in oratory to his heart's content. 
Southern papers announced, with intense indignation, 
that Prentiss — occupying, with his officers, an entire 
train — called out by the bystanders, was permitted to 
make radical Union speeches at many southern railway 
stations. Removed from prison to prison, the Illinois 
General continued to harangue the people, and his men 
to sing the " Star- Spangled Banner," until at last the 
Rebels were glad to exchange them. 



238 Grant and Sherman in Battle. [i862. 

Throughout the battle, Grant rode to and fro on the 
front, smoking his inevitable cigar, with his usual sto- 
lidity and good fortune. Horses and men were killed all 
around him, but he did not receive a scratch. On that 
wooded field, it was impossible for any one to keep 
advised of the progress of the struggle. Grant gave few 
orders, merely bidding his generals do the best they could. 

Sherman had many hair-breadth ' scapes. His brid- 
dle-rein was cut off by a bullet within two inches of his 
fingers. As he was leaning forward in the saddle, a 
ball whistled through the top and back of his hat. His 
metallic shoulder-strap warded off another bullet, and a 
third passed through the palm of his hand. Three 
horses were shot under him. He was the hero of the 
day. All awarded to him the highest praise for skill and 
gallantry. He was promoted to a major-generalship, 
dating from the battle. His official report was a clear, 
vivid, and fascinating description of the conflict. 

Five bullets penetrated the clothing of an officer on 
McClernand's staff, but did not break the skin. A ball 
knocked out two front teeth of a private in the Seven- 
teenth Illinois Infantry, but did him no further injury. 
A rifle-shot passed through the head of a soldier in the 
First Missouri ArtiUery, coming out just above the ear, 
but did not prove fatal. Dr. Cornyn, of St. Louis, told 
me that he extracted a ball from the brain of one soldier, 
who, three days afterward, was on duty, with the bul- 
let in his pocket. 

More than a year afterward, at the battle of Fred- 
ericksburg, Captain Richard Cross, of the Fifth JS'ew 
Hampshire Infantry, noticed one of his Inen whose skull 
had been cut open by the fragment of a shell, with a 
section of it standing upright, leaving the brain exposed. 
Cross shut the piece of skull down like the lid of a tea- 



1862.] A Gallant Feat by Sweeney. 239 

pot, tied a handkerchief around it, and sent to the rear 
the wounded soldier, who ultimately recovered. The 
one truth, taught by field experience to army surgeons, 
was that few, if any, wounds are invariahly fatal. 

At Shiloli, Brigadier-General Thomas W. Sweeney, 
who had lost one arm in the Mexican War, received 
a Minie bullet in his remaining arm, and another shot 
in his foot, while his horse fell riddled with seven 
balls. Almost fainting from loss of blood, he was 
lifted upon another horse, and remained on the field 
through the entire day. His coolness and his marvelous 
escapes were talked of before many camp-fires through- 
out the army. 

Once, during the battle, he was unable to determine 
whether a battery whose men were dressed in blue, was 
Rebel or Union. Sweeney, leaving his command, rode at 
a gentle gallop directly toward the battery until within 
pistol-shot, saw that it was manned by Confederates, 
turned in a half circle, and rode back again at the same 
easy pace. Not a single shot was fired at him, so much 
was the respect of the Confederates excited by this dar- 
ing act. I afterward met one of them, who described 
with great vividness the impression which Sweeney's 
gallantry made upon them. 

The steady determination of Grant' s troops during that 
long April Sunday, was perhaps unequaled during the 
war. At night companies were commanded by sergeants, 
regiments by lieutenants, and brigades by majors. In 
several regiments, one-half the men were killed and 
wounded ; and in some entire divisions the killed and 
wounded exceeded thirty-three per cent, of the numbers 
who went into battle. 

I have seen no other field which gave indication 
of such deadly conflict as the Shiloh ridges and ra- 



240 Buell's Opportune Arrival. [1862. 

vines, everywhere covered with a very thick growth of 
timher — 

" Shot-sown and bladed thick with steel." 

In one tree I counted sixty bullet-holes ; another 
"bore marks of more than ninety balls within ten feet of 
the ground. Sometimes, for several yards in the dense 
shubbery, it was difficult to find a twig as large as one's 
finger, which had not been cut off by balls. 

A friend of mine counted one hundred and twenty- 
six dead Rebels, lying where they fell, upon an area less 
than fifty yards wide and a quarter of a mile long.. One 
of our details buried in a single trench one hundred and 
forty-seven of the enemy, including three lieutenant- 
colonels and four majors. 

But our forces, overpowered by numbers, fell farther 
and further back, while the Rebels took possession of 
many Union camps. At night, our line, originally three 
miles in length, was shortened to three-quarters of a mile. 

For weeks the inscrutable Buell had been leisurely 
marching through Kentucky and Tennessee, to join 
Grant. He arrived at the supreme moment. At four 
o'clock on that Sunday afternoon. General Nelson, of 
Kentucky, who commanded Buell' s advance, crossed the 
Tennessee, and rode up to Grant and his staff when the 
battle was raging. 

"Here we are, General," said Nelson, with the mili- 
tary salute, and pointing to long files of his well-clad, 
athletic, admirably disciplined fellows, already pouring 
on the steamboats, to be ferried across the river. " Here 
we are ! We are not very military in our division. We 
don't know many fine points or nice evolutions ; but if 
you want stupidity and hard fighting, I reckon we are 
the men for you." 



1862.] Beauregard Finally Kouted. 241 

That night "both armies lay upon their guns, and the 
opposing pickets were often within a hundred yards of 
each other. The groans and cries of the dying rendered 
it impossible to sleep. Grant said : 

"We must not give the enemy the moral advantage 
of attacking to-morrow morning. We must fire the first 
gun." 

Just at day-break, the Rebels were surprised at all 
points of the line by assaults from the foe whom they had 
supposed vanquished. Grant' s shattered troops behaved 
admirably, and Buell' s splendid army won new laurels. 
The Confederates were forced back at all points. Their 
retreat was a stampede, leaving behind great quantities of 
ammunition, commissary stores, guns, caissons, small arms, 
supply- wagons and ambulances. They were not vigor- 
ously followed ; but as no effective pursuit was made 
by either side during the entire war (until Sheridan, in 
one of its closing scenes, captured Lee), perhaps north- 
ern and southern troops were too equally matched for 
either to be thoroughly routed. 

Beauregard withdrew to Corinth, as usual, announc- 
ing a glorious victory. He addressed a letter to Grant, 
asking permission, under flag of truce, to send a party to 
the battle-field to bury the Confederate dead. He pre- 
faced the request as follows : 

"Sir, at the close of the conflict of yesterday, my forces being 
exhausted by the extraordinary length of the time during which they 
were engaged with yours on that and the preceding day, and it being 
apparent that you had received and were still receiving re-enforcements, 
I felt it my duty to withdraw my troops from the immediate scene of 
the conflict." 

Grant was strongly tempted to assure Beauregard 
that no apologies for his retreat were necessary ! But 

16 



242 The Losses on Both Sides. [1862. 

lie merely replied in a courteous note, declining the 
request, and stating that the dead were already interred. 
The losses on both sides were officially reported as 
follows : 

Killed. Wounded Missing. Total 

Union 1,614 7,721 3,963 13,298 

Kebel 1,728 8,012 959 10,699 

The excess of Rehel wounded was owing to the supe- 
riority of the muskets used by the Federal soldiers ; and 
the excess of Union missing, to the capture of Prentiss' 
division. 



1862.] Grant Under a Cloud. 243 



CHAPTEK XX. 

How use doth breed a habit in a man. 

Two Gentlemen of Ykbon^ 

But let me tell the world. 

If he outlive the envy of this day, 
England did never owe so sweet a hope 
So much misconstrued. 

Henkt IV. 

It was long after tlie battle of Shiloh before all the 
dead were buried. Many were interred in trenches, scores 
together. A friend, who was engaged in this revolting 
labor, told me that, after three or four days, he found 
himself counting off the bodies as indifferently as he 
would have measured cord- wood. 

Greneral Halleck soon arrived, assuming command of 
the combined forces of Grant, Buell, and Pope. It was 
a grand army. 

Grant nominally remained at the head of his corps, but 
was deprived of power. He was under a cloud. Most 
injurious reports concerning his conduct at Shiloh per- 
vaded the country. AU the leading journals were 
represented in Halleck' s army. At the daily accidental 
gatherings of eight or ten correspondents, Grant was the 
subject of angry discussion. The journalistic profession 
tends to make men oracular and severely critical. 

Several of these writers could demonstrate conclu- 
sively that Grant was without capacity, but a favorite of 
Fortune ; that his great Donelson victory was achieved in 
spite of military blunders which ought to have defeated 
him. 

The subject of all this contention bore himself with 



244 He Serenely Smokes and Waits. [1862. 

undisturlbed serenity. Sherman, while constantly de- 
claring that he cared nothing for the newspapers, was 
.foolishly sensitive to every word of criticism. But 
Grant, whom they really wounded, appeared no more 
disturbed by these paper bullets of the brain than by 
the leaden missiles of the enemy. He silently smoked 
and waited. The only protest I ever knew him to utter 
was to the correspondent of a journal which had de- 
nounced him with great severity : 

"Your paper is very unjust to me; but time will 
make it all right. I want to be judged only by my 
acts." 

When the army began to creep forward, I messed at 
Grant's head-quarters, with his chief of staff; and around 
the evening camp-fires I saw much of the general. He 
rarely uttered a word upon the political bearings of the 
war; indeed, he said little upon any subject. With his 
eternal cigar, and his head thrown slightly to one side, 
for hours he would sit silently before the fire, or walk 
back and forth, with eyes upon the ground, or look on 
at our whist-table, now and then making a suggestion 
about the play. 

Most of his pictures greatly idealize his full, rather 
heavy face. The journalists called him stupid. One 
of my confreres used to say : 

"How profoundly surprised Mrs. Grant must have 
been, when she woke up and learned that her husband 
was a great man !" 

He impressed me as possessing great purity, integrity, 
and amiability, with excellent judgment and boundless 
pluck. ,, But I should never have suspected him of mili- 
tary genius. Indeed, nearly every man of whom, at the 
beginning of the war, I prophesied a great career, proved 
inefiicient, and mce versa. 



1862.] Jealousies of Military Men. 245 

Military men seem to clierisli more jealousies than 
members of any otlier profession, except physicians and 
artistes. At almost every general head-quarters, one 
heard denunciations of riyal commanders. Grant was 
ahove this "mischievous foul sin of chiding." I 
never heard him speak unkindly of a brother officer. 
Still, the soldier' s taint had slightly poisoned him. He 
regarded Rosecrans with peculiar antipathy, and finally 
accepted the command of our combined armies only on 
condition that he should be at once removed. 

Hooker once boasted that he had the best army on the 
planet. One would have declared that Grant com- 
manded the worst. There was little of that order, perfect 
drill, or pride, pomp, and circumstance, seen among 
Buell's troops and in the Army of the Potomac. But 
Grant' s rough, rugged soldiers would fight wonderfully, 
and were not easily demoralized. If their line became 
broken, every man, from behind a tree, rock, or stump, 
blazed away at the enemy on his own account. They 
did not throw up their hats at sight of their general, but 
Were wont to remark, "with a grim smile : 

" There goes the old man. He doesn't say much ; bat 
he's a pretty hard nut for Johnny Reb. to crack." 

Unlike Halleck, Grant did not pretend to familiarity 
with the details of military text-books. He could not 
move an army with that beautiful symmetry which Mc- 
Clellan displayed ; but his pontoons were always up, 
and his ammunition trains were never missing. ^ 

Though not occupied with details, he must have given 
them close attention ; for, while other commanding gene- 
rals had forty or fifty staif-officers, brilliant Avith braid 
and buttons, Grant allowed himself but six or seven. 

Within ten days after the battle of Shiloh, nineteen 
large steamers, crowded with wounded, passed down the 



246 The Union and Rebel Wounded. [1862. 

river. In the long rows of cots wMcli filled their cabins 
and crowded their guards, Rebel and Union soldiers 
were lying side by side, and receiving the same attend- 
ance: 

Scores of volunteer physicians aided the regular army 
surgeons. Hundreds of volunteer nurses, many of them 
wives, sisters, and mothers, came from every walk of life 
to join in the work of mercy. Hands hardened with toil, 
and hands that leisure and luxury left white and soft, 
were bathing fevered brows, supporting wearied heads, 
washing repulsive wounds, combing matted and bloody 
locks. 

Patient forms kept nightly vigils beside the couches ; 
gentle tones dropped priceless words of sympathy ; and, 
when all was over, tender hands closed the fixed eyes, 
and smoothed the hair upon the white foreheads. Thou- 
sands of poor fellows carried to their homes, both North 
and South, grateful memories of those heroic women ; 
thousands of hearts, wrung with the tidings that loved 
ones were gone, found comfort in the knowledge that 
their last hours were soothed by those self-denying and 
blessed ministrations. 

One man, who had received several bullets, lay un- 
discovered for eight days in a little thicket, with no nour- 
ishment except rain-water. After discovery he lived 
nearly two weeks. At some points the ground was so 
closely covered with mutilated bodies that it was difficult 
to step between them. One soldier, rigid in death, was 
found lying upon the back, holding in his fixed hand, 
and regarding with stony eyes, the daguerreotype of a 
woman and child. It was terribly suggestive of the 
desolate homes and bleeding hearts which almost force 
one to Cicero' s conclusion^ that any peace is better than 
the justest war. 



1862,] An Interview with General Sherman. 247 



CHAPTER XXI. 

They are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time. 

Hamlet. • 

General Sherman was yeiy violent toward tlie Press. 
Some newspapers had treated liim unjustly early in tlie 
war. While he commaAided in Kentucky, his eccentrici- 
ties were very remarkable, and a journalist started the 
report that Sherman was crazy, which obtained wide 
credence. There was, at least, method in his madness ; 
for his supposed insanity which declared that the 
Government required two hundred thousand troops in 
the "West, though hooted at the time, proved wisdom 
and prophecy. 

Nevertheless, he was very erratic. When I first saw 
him in Missouri, during Fremont's administration, his 
eye had a half-wild expression, probably the result of 
excessive smoking. From morning till night he was 
never without his cigar. To the nervous-sanguine tem- 
perament, indicated by his blonde hair, light eyes, and 
fair complexion, tobacco is peculiarly injurious. 

While many insisted that no correspondent could meet 
Sherman without being insulted, I sought him at his 
tent in the field ; he was absent with a scouting party, 
but soon returned, with one hand bandaged from his 
Shiloh wound. A staff-officer introduced me : 

" General, this is Mr. ." 

"How do you do, Mr. ?" inquired Sherman, vdth 

great suavity, offering me his uninjured hand. 

"Correspondent of The New Yorlc Tribune^'' ^ added 
the lieutenant. 



248 His Complaints about the Press. [1862. 

The general's manner clianged from Indian summer 
to a Texas norther, and he asked, in freezing tones : 

" Have yon not come to the wrong place, sir ?" 

"I think not. I want to learn some facts about the 
late battle from your own lips. You complain that 
journalists misrepresent you. How can they avoid it, 
when you refuse to give them proper information ? Some 
officers are drunkards and charlatans ; but you would 
think it unjust if we condemned all on that account. 
Is it not equally absurd to anathematize every man of my 
profession for the sins of a few unworthy members?" 

" Perhaps it is. Sit down. Will you have a cigar ? 
The trouble is, that you of the Press have no responsi- 
bilities. Some worthless fellow, wielding a quill, may 
send falsehoods about me to thousands of people who 
can never hear them refuted. What can I do? His 
readers do not know that he is without character. It 
would be useless to prosecute him. If he would even 
fight there would be some satisfaction in that; but a 
slanderer is likely to be a coward as well." 

"True; but when some private citizen slanders you 
on the street or in a drinking- saloon, you do not find it 
necessary to pull the nose of every civilian whom you 
meet. Reputable journalists have just as much pride 
in their profession as you have in yours. This tendency 
to treat them superciliously and harshly, which encou- 
rages flippant young stafi'-officers to insult them, tends 
to drive them home in disgust, and leave their places to 
be supplied by a less worthy class ; so you only aggra- 
vate the evil you complain of." 

After further conversation on this subject, Sherman 
gave me a very entertaining account of the battle. Since 
I first saw him, his eye had grown much calmer, and his 
nervous system healthier. He is tall, of bony frame, spare 



1862.] Sherman's pERSONAji Appearance. 249 

in flesli, with thin, wrinkled face, sandy Ibeard and hair, 
and bright, restless eyes. His face indicates great vitality 
and activity ; his manner is restless ; his discourse rapid 
and earnest. He looks rather like an anxious man of 
business than an ideal soldier, suggesting the exchange, 
and not the camp. 

He has great capacity for labor — sometimes working 
for twenty consecutive hours. He sleeps little, nor do 
the most powerful opiates relieve his terrible cerebral 
excitement. Indifferent to dress and to fare, he can live 
on hard bread and water, and fancies any one else can do 
so. Often irritable, and sometimes rude, he is a man of 
great originality and daring, and a most valuable lieuten- 
ant for a general of coolness and judgment, like Grant or 
Thomas. With one of them to plan or modify, he is 
emphatically the man to execute. His purity and 
patriotism are beyond all question. He did not enter the 
army to speculate in cotton, or to secure a seat in the 
United States Senate, but to serve the country. 

Military weaknesses are often amusing. A prominent 
officer on Halleck's staff, who had served with Scott in 
Mexico, had something to do with fortifying Island ISTum- 
ber Ten, after its capture. An obscure country news- 
paper gave another officer the credit. Seeking the agent 
of the Associated Press at Halleck's head-quarters, the 
aggrieved engineer remarked : 

"By the way, Mr. Weir, I have been carrying a 
paper in my pocket for several days, but have forgotten 
to hand it to you. Here it is." 

And he produced a letter page of denial, upon which 
the ink was not yet dry, stating that the island had been 

fortified under the immediate direction of General , 

the well-known officer of the regular army, who served 
upon the staff of Lieutenant-General Scott during the 



250. Humors or the Telegraph. [1862. 

Mexican war, and was at present - — -^ , and 

upon the staff of General Halleck. 

"I rely upon your sense of justice," said this orna- 
ment of the staff, " to give this proper publicity." 

Mr. Weir, with a keen sense of the ridiculous, sent 
the long dispatch word for word to the Associated Press, 
adding: "You may rest assured that this is perfectly 
reliable, because every word of it was written by the old 
fool himself !" All the newspaper readers in the country 
had the formal dispatch, and all the telegraph corps had 
their merriment over this confidential addendum. 

Halleck' s command contained eighty thousand effect- 
ive men, who were nearly all veterans. His line was 
ten miles in length, with Grant on the right, Buell in the 
center, and Pope on the left. 

The grand army was like a huge serpent, with its head 
pinned on our left, and its tail sweeping slowly around 
toward Corinth. Its majestic march was so slow that the 
Rebels had ample warning. It was large enough to eat 
up Beauregard at one mouthful ; but Halleck crept for- 
ward at the rate of about three-quarters of a mile per day. 
Thousands and thousands of his men died from fevers and 
diarrhoea. 

There was great dissatisfaction at his slow prog- 
ress. Pope was particularly impatient. One day he 
had a very sharp skirmish with the enemy. Our posi- 
tion was strong. General Palmer, who commanded on 
the front, reported that he could hold it against the 
world, the flesh, and the devil ; but Halleck telegraphed 
to Pope three times within an hour not to be drawn into 
a general engagement. After the last dispatch. Pope re- 
tired, leaving the enemy in possession of the field. How 
he did storm about it 1 

The little army which Pope had brought from the 



1862.] Weaknesses of Sundey Geneeals. 251 

capture of Island Numlber Ten was perfectly drilled and 
disciplined, and he handled it with rare ability. Much 
of his subsequent unpopularity arose from his imprudent 
and violent language. He sometimes indulged in the most 
unseemly profanity and billingsgate within hearing of a 
hundred people. 

But his personal weaknesses were pardonable com- 
pared with those of some other prominent officers. Du- 
ring Fremont's Missouri campaign, I knew one general 
who afterward enjoyed a well-earned national reputa- 
tion for skill and gallantry. His head- quarters were the 
scenes of nightly orgies, where whisky punches and 
draw-poker reigned from dark until dawn. In the morn- 
ing his tent was a strange museum of bottles, glasses, 
sugar-bowls, playing-cards, gold, silver, and bank-notes. 
I knew another western officer, who, during the heat of 
a Missouri battle, according to the newspaper reports, 
inspirited his men by shouting : 

' ' Go in, boys ! Remember Lyon ! Remember the 
old flag !" 

He did use those words, but no enemy was within 
half a mile, and he was lying drunk on the ground, flat 
upon his back. Afterward, repenting in sackcloth and 
ashes, he did the State some service, and his delinquency 
was never made public. 

At Antietam, a general, well known both in Europe 
and America, was reported disabled by a spent shell, 
which struck him in the breast. The next morning, he 
gave me a minute history of it, assuring me that he still 
breathed with difficulty and suffered greatly from internal 
soreness. The fact was that he was disabled by a bottle 
of whisky, having been too hospitable to that seductive 
friend ! 

After the evacuation of Corinth, Pope's reputation 



252 "John Pope, Major-General Commanding." [I862, 

suffered greatly from a false dispatch, asserting that lie 
had captured ten thousand prisoners. Halleck alone was 
responsible for the report. Pope was in the rear. One 
of his subordinates on the front telegraphed him sub- 
stantially as follows : 

" The woods are full of demoralized and flying Rebels. Some of my 
officers estimate their number as high as ten thousand. Many of them 
have already come into my lines." 

Pope forwarded this message, which said nothing 
about taking prisoners, to Halleck, without erasing or 
adding a line; and Halleck, smarting under his morti- 
fying failure at Corinth, telegraphed that Pope reported 
the capture of ten thousand Rebels. Pope's reputation 
for veracity was fatally wounded, and the newspapers 
burlesqued him mercilessly. 

One of my comrades lay sick and wounded at the 
residence of Greneral Clinton B. Fisk, of St. Louis. On 
a Sunday afternoon the general was reading to him from 
the Bible an account of the first contraband. This 
historic precedent was the servant of an Amalekite, who 
came into David's camp and proposed, if assured of 
freedom, to show the King of Israel a route which 
would enable him to surprise his foes. The promise 
was given, and the king fell upon the enemy, whom he 
utterly destroyed. While our host was reading the list of 
the spoils, the prisoners, slaves, women, flocks and herds 
captured by David, the sick journalist lifted his at- 
tenuated finger, and in his weak, piping voice, said : 

"Stop, General; just look down to the bottom of 
that list, and see if it is not signed John Pope, Major- 
General commanding !" ' 

At last, Halleck' s army reached Corinth, but the bird 



1862.] Halleck's Faux Pas at Corinth. 253 

tad flown. 'No event of the war reflected so mncli 
credit npon tlie Rebels and so mucli discredit upon the 
Unionists as Beauregard's evacuation. He did not dis- 
turb himself until Halleck's Parrott guns had thrown 
shots within fourteen feet of his own head-quarters. 
Then, keeping up a vigorous show of resistance on his 
front, he deserted the town, leaving behind not a single 
gun, or ambulance, or even a sick or wounded man in 
the hospital. 

Halleck lost thenceforth the name of "Old Brains," 
which some imaginative person had given him, and 
which tickled for a time the ears of his soldiers. The 
only good thiiig he ever did, in public, was to make 
two brief speeches. When he first reached St. Louis, 
upon being called out by the people, he said : 

"With your help, I will drive the enemy out of 
Missouri." 

Called upon again, on leaving St, Louis for Washing- 
ton, to assume the duties of general-in-chief, he made an 
equally brief response : 

" Gentlemen : I promised to drive the enemy out of 
Missouri : I have done it !" 



n 



Halleck's Army, before Corikth, 
April 23, 1862. 

Heavy re-enforcements are arriving. The woods, in 
luxuriant foliage, are spiced with 

"^ a dream of forest sweets, 

Of odorous blooms and sweet contents," 

and the deserted orchards are fragrant with apple and 
cherry blossoms. 

May 11. 

Still we creep slowly along. Pope' s head-quarters are 



' 254 Out on the Front. [1862. 

now witMn the "borders of Mississippi. Out on Ms 
front you find several hundred acres of cotton-field and 
sward, ridged with graves from a recent hot skirmish. 
Carcasses of a hundred horses, killed during the hattle, 
are slowly burning under piles of rails, covered with a 
layer of earth, that their decay may not taint the 
atmosphere. 

Beyond, our infantry pickets present muskets and 
order you to halt. If you are accompanied by a field- 
officer, or bear a pass " by order of Major-General Hal- 
leck," you can cross this Rubicon. A third of a mile 
farther are our vedettes, some mounted, others lying in 
the shade beside their grazing horses, but keeping a 
sharp look-out in front. In a little rift of the woods, half 
a mile away, you see through your field-glass a soKtary 
horseman clad in butternut. Two or three more, and 
sometimes forty or fifty, come out of the woods and join 
him, but they keep very near their cover, and soon go 
back. Those are the enemy's pickets. You hear the 
drum beat in the Rebel lines, and the shrill whistle of the 
locomotives at Corinth, which is three miles distant. 

May 19. 

Along our entire front, almost daily, the long roll is 
sounded, and the ground jarred by the dull rumble of 
cannonade. The little attention paid to these skirmishes, 
where we lose from fifty to one hundred men, illustrates 
the magnitude of the war. 

We feel the earth vibrate, and look inquiringly into 
the office of the telegraph which accompanies every 
corps. 

"It is on Buell's center, or on Grant's right," the 
operator replies. 

If it does not become rapid and prolonged, no further 



1862.] Drilling, Digging, and Skirmishing. 255 

qnestions are asked. At mght, awakened "by tlie sharp 
rattle of musketry, we raise our heads, listen for the 
alarm-drum, and, not hearing it, roll over in our hlan- 
kets, to court again the drowsy god. 

Ride out with me to the front, five miles from Hal- 
leck's head-quarters. The country is undulating and 
woody, with a few cotton-fields and planters' houses. 
The beautiful groves open into delicious vistas of green 
grass or rolling wheat ; luxuriant fiowers perfume the 
vernal air, and the rich foliage already seems to dis- 
play— ^ 

"The tintings and the fingerings of June, 



As she blossoms into beauty and sings her Summer tune !" 

Here is a deserted camp of a division which has 
moved forward. Three or four adjacent farmers are 
gathering up the barrels, boxes, provisions, and other 
debris, left behind by the troops. 

Here is a division on drill, advancing in line of battle, 
the skirmishers thrown out in front, deploying, gathering 
in groups, or falling on their faces at the word of com- 
mand. 

Beyond those white tents our soldiers, in gray shirts 
and blue pants, are busily plying the spade. They 
throw up a long rampart notched with embrasures for 
cannon. We have already built fifty miles of breast- 
works. 

A little in the rear are the heavy siege-guns, where 
they can be brought up quickly ; a little in front, the 
field artillery, with the horses harnessed and tied to trees, 
xeady for use at a moment' s notice. Near the workmen, 
their comrades, who do the more legitimate duty of the 
soldier, are standing on their arms, to repel any sortie 
from the enemy. Their guns, with the burnished barrels 



256 Experiences among the Sharp-shooters. [1862 

and "bayonets glistening in the snn, are stacked in long 
rows, while the men stand in little groups, or sit under 
the trees, playing cards, reading letters or newspapers. 
More than twenty thousand copies of the daily papers of 
the western cities and IN'ew York are sold in the army 
at ten cents each. The number of letters which go 
out from the camps in each day's mail is nearly as 
large. 

When this parapet is completed, we shall go for- 
ward a few hundred yards, and throw up another; 
and thus we advance slowly toward Corinth. 

Ride still farther, and you find the infantry pickets. 
The yedettes are drawn in, if there is any skirmishing 
going on. From the extreme front, you catch an occa- 
sional glimpse of the Rebels — "Butternuts," as they 
are termed in camp, from their cinnamon-hued home- 
spun, dyed with butternut extract. They are dodging 
among the trees, and, if you are wise, you will get 
behind a tree yourself, and beware how you show your 
head. 

Already one of their sharp-shooters notices you. Pufi^, 
comes a cloud of smoke from his rifle ; in the same 
breath you hear the explosion, and the sharp, ringing 
"ping" of the bullet through the air! Capital shots 
are many of these long, lank, loose-jointed Mississippians 
and Texans, whose rifles are sometimes efiective at ten 
and twely^ hundred yards. Yesterday, one of them 
concealed himself in the dense foliage of a tree-branch, 
and picked off several of our soldiers. At last, one 
of our own sharp-shooters took him in hand, and, at 
the sixth discharge, brought him down to the ground. 
This sharp- shooting is a needless aggravation of the 
horrors of war ; but if the enemy indulges in it, you have 
no recourse but to do likewise. 



1862.] Horses Stolen Every Day. 257 

Stealing is the inevitable accompaniment of camp life 
— " convey, the wise" call it. I have a steed, cadaverous 
and bony, but with good locomotive powers. There was 
profound policy in my selection. For five consecutive 
nights that horse was stolen, but no thief ever kept him 
after seeing him by day-light. In the morning, he would 
always come browsing back. My friend and tent-mate 
" Carlton," of Tlie Boston Journal^ had a more vaulting 
ambition. He procured a showy horse, which proved 
the most expensive luxury in all his varied experience. 
The special aptitude of the animal was to be stolen. Reg- 
ularly, seven mornings in the week, our African factotum 
would thrust his woolly head into the tent, and awaketi 
us with this salutation : 

''Breakfast is readj^ Mr. CoflBln, your horse is gone 
again." 

By hard search and liberal rewards, he would be re- 
claimed during the day from some cavalry soldier, who 
averred that he had found him running loose. After 
being impaled and nearly Idlled upon a rake-handle, the 
poor brute, hardly able to walk ten paces, was stolen 
again, and never re-appeared. My friend now remem- 
bered his showy steed, and the last five-dollar note which 
he sent in fruitless pursuit, among blessings which bright- 
ened as they took their flight. 

Cairo, III., May 21. 

General Halleck has expelled all the correspondents 
from the army, on the plea that he must exclude " unau- 
thorized hangers-on," to keep spies out of his camps. 
His refusal to accept any guaranties of their loyalty and 
prudence, even from the President himself, proves that 
this plea was a shallow subterfuge. The real trouble is, 
that Halleck is not willing to have his conduct exhibited 

17 



258 Halleck Expels the War Correspondents. [i862. 

to the country through any other medium than official 
reports. "As false as a bulletin," has passed into a pro- 
verb. 

The journalists received invitations to remain, from 
friends holding commissions in the army, from major- 
generals down to lieutenants ; but, believing their pres- 
ence just as legitimate and needful as that of any soldier 
or officer, they determined not to skulk about camps like 
felons, but all left in a body. Their individual griev- 
ances are nothing to the public ; but this is a grave issue 
between the Military Power and the rights of the Press 
and the People. 



1862.] BlOODTHIRSTINESS OF E.EBEL WOMEN. 259 



CHAPTER XXII. 



■ Whose tongue 



Outvenoms all tlie ■worms of Nile. 

Ctmbelini. 

"No history of tlie war is likely to do full justice to the 
bitterness of the Rebel women. Female influence tempted 
thousands of young men to enter the Confederate service 
against their own wishes and sympathies. Women some- 
times evinced incredible rancor and bloodthirstiness. 
The most startling illustration of the brutalizing eflfect of 
Slavery appeared in the absence of that sweetness, charity, 
and tenderness toward the suffering, which is the crown- 
ing grace of womanhood. 

A southern Unionist, the owner of many slaves, said 
to me : 

*'I suppose I have not struck any of my negroes for 
ten years. When they need correcting, my wife always 
does it." 

K he had a horse or a mule requiring occasional whip- 
ping, would he put the scourge in the hands of his little 
daughter, and teach her to wield it, from her tender years ? 
How infinitely more must it brutalize and corrupt her 
when the victim is a man — the most sacred thing that 
God has made — his earthly image and his human temple ! 

Before we captured Memphis, the sick and wounded 
Union prisoners were in a condition of great want and 
suffering. Women of education, wealth, and high social 
position visited the hospitals to minister to Rebel patients. 



260 The Battle of Memphis. [1862. 

Frequently entering the Federal wards from curiosity, 
they used toward the groaning patients expressions like 
this : 

"I would like to give you one dose! You would 
never fight against the South again !" 

In what happy contrast to this shone the self-denying 
ministrations of northern women, to friend and enemy 
alike ! 

In Memphis, on the evening of June 5th, General 
Jeff. Thompson, commanding the Hebel cavalry, and 
Commodore Edward Montgomery, commanding the Rehel 
flotilla, stated at the Gayoso House that there would 
"be a hattle the next morning, in which the Yankee fleet 
would he destroyed in just about two hours. 

Just after daylight, the Rebel flotilla attacked ours, 
two miles above the city. We had five iron-clads and 
several rams, which were then experimental. They 
were light, agile little stern-wheel boats, whose ma- 
chinery was not at all protected against shots. The 
battle occurred in full view of the city. Though it began 
soon after daylight, it was witnessed by ten thousand 
people upon the high bluff — an anxious, excited crowd. 
The Rebels dared not be too demonstrative, and the 
Unionists dared not whisper a word of their long-cher- 
ished and earnest hopes. 

While the two fleets were steaming toward each other, 
Colonel EUet, determined to succeed or to die, daringly 
pushed forward with his little rams, the Monarch and 
Queen of the West. With these boats, almost as fragile 
as pasteboard, he steamed directly into the Rebel flotilla. 
One of his rams struck the great gunboat Sterling Price 
with a terrific blow, crushing timbers and tearing away 
the entire larboard wheel-house. The Price drifted 
helplessly down the stream and stranded. Another of 



1862.] Gallant Exploits of the Eams. 261 

EUet's rams ran at full speed into the General Lovell, 
cutting her in twain. The Kebel boat filled and sunk. 

From the shore, it was a most impressive sight. 
There was the Lovell, with holiday decorations, crowded 
with men and firing her guns, when the little ram struck 
her, crushing in her side, and she went down like a plum- 
met. In three minutes, even the tops of her tall chim- 
neys disappeared under water. Scores of swimming and 
drowning Rebels in the river were rescued by boats 
from the Union fleet. 

One of the rams now ran alongside and grappled the 
Beauregard, and, through hose, drenched her decks with 
scalding water, while her cannoneers dared not show 
their heads to Ellet' s sharpshooters, who were within a few 
feet of them. Another Rebel boat came up to strike the 
ram, but the agile little craft let go her hold and backed 
out. The blow intended for her struck the Beauregard, 
which instantly went down, "hoist with his own petar." 

The Sumter and the Little Rebel, both disabled, were 
6tranded on the Arkansas shore. The Jeff. Thompson 
was set on fire and abandoned by her crew. In a few 
Ininutes there was an enormous dazzling flash of light, a 
measureless volume of black smoke, and a startling roar, 
which seemed to shake the earth to its very center. For 
several seconds the air was filled with falling timbers. 
Exploding her magazine, the Rebel gunboat expired 
with a great pyrotechnic display. 

The General Bragg received a fifty-pound shot, which 
tore off a long plank under her water-mark, and she was 
captured in a sinking condition. The Yan Dorn, the 
only Rebel boat which survived the conflict, turned and. 
fled down the river. 

The battle lasted just one hour and three minutes. 
It was the most startling, dramatic, and memorable dis- 



262 A Sailor on a Lark. [1862. 

play of the whole war. On our side, no one was in- 
jured except Colonel EUet, who had performed such 
unexampled feats with his little rams. A splinter, which 
struck him in the leg, inflicted a fatal wound. 

As our fleet landed, a number of news-hoys sprang 
on shore, and, a moment after, were running through 
the street, shouting : 

"Here's yoyxr New- TorJc Tribune and Herald — only 
ten cents in silver !" 

The correspondents, before the city was formally sur- 
rendered, had strolled through the leading streets. At 
the Gayoso House they registered their names immedi- 
ately under those of the fugacious Rebel general, and 
ordered dinner. 

The Memphis Rebels, who had predicted a siege 
rivaling Saragossa and Londonderry, were in a condition 
of stupor for two weeks after our arrival. They rubbed 
their eyes wonderingly, to see Union officers and Aboli- 
tion journalists at large without any suggestions of hang- 
ing or tarring and feathering. Remembering my last 
visit, it was with peculiar satisfaction that I appended 
in enormous letters to my signature upon the hotel regis- 
ter, the name of the journal I served. 

On the day of the capture, an intoxicated seaman from 
one of the gun-boats, who had been shut up for several 
months, went on shore " skylarking." Offering his arms 
to the first two negro women he met, he promenaded the 
whole length of Main street. The Memphis Rebels were 
suffering for an outrage, and here was one just to their 
mind. 

"If that is the way, sir," remarked one of them, 
"that your people propose to treat southern gentlemen 
and ladies — if they intend to thrust upon us such a dis- 
gusting spectacle of negro equality, it will be perilous 



1862.] Appearance of the Captured City. 263 

for them. Do they expect to conciliate our people in 
this manner?" 

I mildly suggested that the era of conciliation ceased 
when the era of fighting began. The sailor was arrested 
and put in the guard-house. 

Our officers mingled freely with the people. No citi- 
zens insulted our soldiers in the streets ; no woman re- 
peated the disgraceful scenes of New Orleans by spitting 
in the faces of the "invaders." The Unionists received 
us as brothers from whom they had long been separated. 
One lady brought out from its black hiding-place, in her 
chimney, a National flag, which had been concealed there 
from the beginning of the war. A Loyalist told me 
that, coming out of church on Sunday, he was thrilled 
with the news that the Yankees had captured Fort Don- 
elson ; but, with a grave face, he replied to his informant : 

"That is sad business for us, is it not ?" 

Reaching home, with his wife and sister, they gave 
vent to their exuberant joy. He could not huzza, and so 
he relieved himself by leaping two or three times over a 
center-table ! 

There were many genuine Rebels whose eyes glared at 
us with the hatred of caged tigers. Externally decorous, 
they would remark, ominously, that they hoped our sol- 
diers would not irritate the people, lest it should deluge 
the streets with blood. They proposed fabulous wagers 
that Sterling Price's troops could whip the whole Union 
army ; circulated daily reports that the Confederates had 
recaptured New Orleans and Nashville, and talked mys- 
teriously about the fatality of the yellow fever, and the 
prospect that it would soon break out. 

Gladness shone from the eyes of all the negroes. Their 
dusky faces were radiant with welcome, and many wo- 
men, turbaned in bright bandanas, thronged the office of 



264 Grant Orders Away the Jews. [1862. 

the provost-marslial, applying for passage to the ISTortli. 
We found Memphis as torpid as Syria, where Yusef 
Browne declared that he saw only one man exhibit any 
sign of activity, and he was engaged in tumhling from the 
roof of a house ! But stores were soon opened, and tra- 
ders came crowding in from the North. Most of them 
were Jews. 

Everywhere we saw the deep eyes and pronounced 
features of that strange, enterprising people. I observed 
one of them, with the Philistines upon him, marching to 
the military prison. The pickets had caught him with 
ten thousand dollars' worth of hoots and shoes, which he 
was taking into Dixie. He "bore the miscarriage with 
great philosophy, bewailing neither his ducats nor his 
daughter, his hoots nor his liberty — smiling complacently, 
and finding consolation in the vilest of cigars. But in his 
dark, sad eye was a gleam of latent vengeance, which he 
doubtless wreaked upon the first unfortunate customer 
who fell into his clutches after his release. 

Glancing at the guests who crowded the dining-hall 
of the Gayoso, one might have believed that the lost 
tribes of Israel were gathering there for the Millennium. 

Many of them engaged in contraband trafiic, supply- 
ing the Rebels with food, and even with ammunition. 
Some months after, these very gross abuses induced Grant 
to issue a sweeping ukase expelling all Jews from his de- 
partment — an order which the President wisely counter- 
manded. 

The Rebel authorities had destroyed all the cotton, 
sugar, and molasses they could find ; but these articles 
now began to emerge from novel hiding-places. One 
gentleman had fifty bales of cotton in his closed parlor. 
Hundreds of bales were concealed in the woods, in lofts, 
and in cellars. Much sugar was buried. One man, en- 



1862.] A Rebel Paper Supervised. 265 

tom'biiig fifteen hogslieads, neglected to throw up a 
mound to turn off the water ; when he dug for his sugar, 
its linked sweetness was too long drawn out 1 The hogs- 
heads were empty. 

On the ITtli of June, a little party of Union officers 
came galloping into the city from the country. They 
were evidently no gala-day soldiers. Their sun-browned 
faces, dusty clothing, and jaded horses hespoke hard 
campaigns and long marches. 

One horseman, in a blue cap and plain blouse, bore 
no mark of rank, but was noticeable for the peculiar 
brilliancy of his dark, flashing eye. This modest soldier 
was Major-General Lew. Wallace ; and his division ar- 
rived a few hours after. He established his quarters at 
the Gayoso, in the same apartments which had been occu- 
pied successively by four Rebel commanders, Pillow, 
Polk, Yan Dorn, and Price. 

Tlie Memphis Argus^ a bitter Secession sheet, had 
been allowed to continue publication, though its tone 
was very objectionable. General Wallace at once ad- 
dressed to the proprietors the following note : 

" As the closing of your oflSce might be injurious to you pecuniarily, 
I send Messrs, Kichardson, of The Neio Yorh Tribune^ and Knox, of The 
New YorJc Herald^ — two gentlemen of ample experience — to take charge 
of the editorial department of your paper. The business and manage- 
ment will be left to you." 

The publishers, glad to continue upon any terms, ac- 
quiesced, and thereafter every morning, before The Argus 
went to press, the proof-sheets were sent to us for re- 
vision. 

The first dress-parade of Wallace's original regiment, 
the Eleventh Indiana Infantry, was attended by hun- 
dreds of Memphians, curious to see northern troops 



266 " A Dam Black-Haeted Ablichiness." [i862. 

drawn up in line. They wore no Ibright trappings or 
holiday attire. Their well-kept arms shone in the fading 
sunlight, a line of polished steel ; but their soiled uni- 
forms had left their l)rightness hehind in many hard- 
fought hattles. They went through the drill with rare 
precision. The Rebel bystanders clapped their hands 
heartily, with a certain unconscious pride that these sol- 
diers were their fellow- Americans. The spectacle dimmed 
their faith in their favorite five-to-one theory. 

" Well, John," asked one of them beside me, " how 
many regiments like that do you think one of ours could 
whip?" 

" I think that whipping one would be a pretty hard 
day's work !" was the reply 

Montlis before our arrival, a Union employe of the 
Memphis and Ohio Railroad sold a watch to a Secession 
comrade. Vainly attempting to collect the pay, he 
finally wrote a pressing letter. The debtor sent back the 
dun with this reply : 

" Snt : My privet Apinion is Public express is that you ar A Dam 
Black harted ablichiness and if I ever hear of you open you mouth a gane 
you will get .you head shave and cent Back to you free nigar Land Whar 
you be along these are fackes and you now I can prove them and I will 
Doet." 

The Loyalist pocketed the affront, " ablichiness" and 
all, and nursed his wrath to keep it warm. Meet- 
ing his debtor on the street, after the arrival of our 
forces, he administered to him a merciless flagellation. 
Before our Provost-Marshal it was decided to be a case 
of "justifiable assault," and the prisoner was discharged 
from custody. 

In the deserted ofl3.ce of The Appeal we found the fol- 
lowing manuscript : — 



1862.] Challenge from a Southern Woman. 267 



"a challenge 
" where as the wicked policy of the president— Making war upon the 
South for refusing to submit to wrong too palpable for Southerners to do. 
And where as it has become necessary for the young Men of our country, 
My Brother, in the number To enlist to do the dirty work of Driving the 
Mercenarys from our sunny south, whose soil is too holy for such 
wretches to tramp And whose atmosphere is to pure for them to breathe 
" For such an indignity afford to Civilization I Merely Challenge any 
abolition or Black Eepublican lady of character if there can be such a one 
found among the negro equality tribe. To Meet Me at Masons and 
dixon line. "With a pair of Colt's repeaters or any other weapon they 
May Choose, That I May receive satis faction for the insult. 

" Victoria E. Goodwin. 
" Spring Dale, Miss., April 27, 1861." 

Confederate cnrrency was a curiosity of literature and 
finance. Dray-tickets and checks, marked "Good for 
twenty-five cents," and a great variety of shinplasters, 
were current. One, issued by a Ibaker, represented 
"twenty -five cents in drayage or confectionary," at the 
option of the holder. Another guaranteed to the hearer 
" the sum of five cents from the Mississippi and Tennes- 
see Kailroad Company, in freight or passage !" 

One of my acquaintances had purchased in Chicago, at 
ten cents a dozen, lithograjphic /ac-similes of the regular 
Confederate notes, promising to pay to the bearer ten 
dollars, six months after a treaty of peace, between the 
United States and the Confederate States. A Memphis 
merchant, knowing that they were counterfeit, manufac- 
tured only to sell as curiosities, considered their execu- 
tion so much better than the originals, that he gladly gave 
Tennessee bank-notes in exchange for them. My friend 
subsisted at his hotel for several days upon the proceeds 
of these facsimiles, and thought it cheap boarding. 
While Curtis' s army was in northern Arkansas, our offi- 
cers found at a village druggist' s several large sheets of his 



268 A Droll Species of Currency. [i862. 

printed promises to pay, neither cut nor signed. At tlie 
next village one of them purchased a canteen of whisky, 
and offered the grocer a ISTational treasury note in payment. 
The trader refused it ; it was, doubtless, good, but might 
cause him trouble after the army had left. He would re- 
ceive either gold or Confederate money. The officer ex- 
hibited one of these blanks, and asked if he would take 
that. " yes," he replied ; "it is as good money as I 
want !" And he actually sold two hundred and fifty can- 
teens of whisky for those unsigned shinplasters, cut off 
from the sheets in his presence ! 

Late in June, General Grant, accompanied only by 
his personal staff, often rode from Corinth to Memphis, 
ninety miles, through a region infested by guerrillas. 

The guests at the Gayoso House regarded with much 
curiosity the quiet, slightly- stooping, rural-looking man 
in cotton coat and broad-brimmed hat, talking little and 
smoking much, who was already beginning to achieve 
world-wide reputation. 

A party of native Arkansans, including a young 
lady, arrived in Memphis, coming up the Mississippi in 
an open skiff. When leaving home they expected to en- 
counter some of our gun-boats in a few hours, and pro- 
vided themselves only with one day's food, and an ample 
supply of champagne. Accustomed to luxury, and all 
unused to labor, in the unpitying sun they rowed for five 
days against the strong current of the Mississippi, burnt, 
sick, and famishing. For five nights they slept upon 
the ground on the swampy shore, half devoured by 
musquitoes. At last they found an alii of safety in the 
iron-clad St. Louis. 

During a fight at St. Charles, on the White River, the 
steam-drum of the gun-boat Mound City was exploded 
by a Rebel shot. The terrified gunners and seamen, 



186-2.] A Clever Rebel Trick. 269 

many of tliem horribly scalded, jumped into the water. 
The Confederates, from behind trees on the bank, delib- 
erately shot the scalded and drowning wretches ! 

Halleck continued in command at Corinth. From 
some cause, his official telegrams to Greneral Curtis, iu 
Arkansas, and Commodore Davis, on the Mississippi, 
were not transmitted in cipher; and the line was un- 
guarded, though leading through an intensely Rebel 
region. In July, the Memphis operators, from the diffi- 
cult working of their instruments, surmised that some 
outsider must be sharing their telegraphic secrets. One 
day the transmission of a message was suddenly inter- 
rupted by the ejaculation : 

' ' Pshaw ! Hurra for Jeff Davis !" 

Individuality reveals itself as clearly in telegraphing 
as in the footstep or handwriting. Mr. Hall, the Mem- 
phis operator, instantly recognized the performer — by 
what the musicians would call his " time" — as a former 
telegraphic associate in the N'orth ; and sent him this 
message : 

" Saville, if you don't want to be hung, you had bet- 
ter leave. Our cavalry is closing in on all sides of you." 

After a little pause, the surprised Rebel replied : 

" How in the world did you know me ? I have been, 
here four days, and learned about all your military 
secrets ; but it is becoming a rather tight place, and I 
think I will leave. Good-by, boys." 

He made good his escape. In the woods he had cut 
the wire, inserted one of his own, and by a pocket in- 
strument perused our official dispatches, stating the 
exact number and location of United States troops in 
Memphis. Re-enforcements were immediately ordered 
in, to guard against a Rebel dash. 

Later in July, Sherman assumed command. One day, 



270 A Bit of Sherman's Waggery. [1862. 

a "bereaved man-owner visited him, to learn how he 
could reclaim his runaway slaves. 

*' I know of only one way, sir," replied the general, 
*' and that is, through the United States marshal." 

The unsuspecting planter went up and down the city 
inquiring for that civil officer. 

"Have you any "business with him?" asked a Fed- 
eral captain. 

"Yes, sir. I want my negroes. General Sherman 
says he is the proper person to return them." 

" Undoubtedly he is. The law prescribes it." 

"Is he in town?" 

" I rather suspect not." 

' ' When do you think he left ?' ' 

" About the time Sumter was fired on, I fancy." 

At last it dawned upon the planter's brain that the 
Fugitive Slave Law was void after the people drove out 
United States officers. He went sadly back to Sherman, 
and asked if there was no other method of recovering his 
chattels. 

" 'None within my knowledge, sir." 

" What can I do about it ?" 

" The law provided a remedy for you slaveholders in 
cases like this ; but you were dissatisfied and smashed 
the machine. If you don't like your work, you had 
better set it to running again." 

On the 7th and 8th of March, 1862, occurred the 
battle of Pea Ridge, in Arkansas. Our troops were com- 
manded by General Curtis. Yandeveer' s brigade made a 
forced march of forty-one miles between 2 o'clock a. m., 
and 10 p. M. , in order to participate in the engagement. 
The fight was very severe, but the tenacity of the west- 
ern soldiers finally routed the Rebels. 

There chanced to be only one New York correspon- 



1862.] Fictitious Battle Reports. 271 

dent with Curtis' s command. During the "battle he was 
wounded by a fragment of shell. He sent forward his 
report, with calm complacency, presuming that it was 
exclusive. 

But two other New York journalists in St. Louis, 
hearing of the battle, at once repaired to RoUa, the near- 
est railway point, though one hundred and ninety-five 
miles distant from Pea Ridge. Perusing the very 
meager official dispatches, knowing what troops were 
engaged, knd learning from an old countryman the 
topography of the field, they wrote elaborate accounts of 
the two days' conflict. 

Indebted to their imagination for their facts, they 
gave minute details and a great variety of incidents. 
Their reports were plausible and graphic. Tlie London 
Times reproduced one of them, pronouncing it the ablest 
and best battle account which had been written during 
the American war. For months, the editors who origin- 
ally published these reports, did not know that they 
were fictitious. They were written only as a Bohemian 
freak, and remained the only accounts manufactured by 
any reputable journalist during the war. 

After the battle, Curtis' s army, fifteen thousand 
strong, pursued its winding way through the interior of 
Arkansas. It maintained no communications, carrying 
its base of supplies along with it. When out of pro- 
visions, it would seize and run all the neighboring corn- 
mills, until it obtained a supply of meal for one or two 
weeks, and then move forward. 

Day after day, the Memphis Rebels told us, with iU- 
concealed glee, that Curtis' s army, after terrific slaughter, 
had all been captured, or was just about to surrender. 
For weeks we had no reliable intelligence from it. But 
suddenly it appeared at Helena, on the Mississippi, 



272 CuRTis's Great March through Arkansas, [1862. 

seyenty-five miles Ibelow Memphis, having marched more 
than six hundred miles through the enemy's country. 
Despite the unhealthy climate, the soldiers arrived in 
excellent sanitary condition, weary and ragged, l)ut well, 
and with an immense train of followers. It was a com- 
mon jest, that every private came in with one horse, one 
mule, and two negroes. 

The army correspondents, disgusted with the hard- 
ships and unwholesome fare of Missouri, Arkansas, Ten- 
nessee, and Mississippi, often predicted, with what they 
thought extravagant humor : — 

"When Cincinnati or Chicago Ibecomes the seat of 
war, all this will be changed. We will take our ease at 
our inn, and view battles aesthetically." 

But in September, this jest became the literal truth. 
Bragg, leaving Buell far behind in Tennessee, invaded 
Kentucky, and seriously threatened Cincinnati. 

Martial law was declared, and all Cincinnati began 
arming, drilling, or digging. In one day, twenty-five 
thousand citizens enrolled their names, and were organized 
into companies. Four thousand worked upon the Cov- 
ington fortifications. I^ewspaper proprietors were in the 
trenches. Congressmen, actors, and artists, carried mus- 
kets or did staff duty. 

A few sneaks were dragged from their hiding-places 
in back kitchens, garrets, and cellars. One fellow was 
found in his wife' s clothing, scrubbing away at the wash- 
tub. He was suddenly stripped of his crinoline by the 
German guard, who, with shouts of laughter, bore him 
away to a working-party. 

New regiments of volunteers came pouring in fronj 
Indiana, Michigan, and the other Northwestern States. 
The farmers, young and old, arrived by thousands, with 
their shot-guns and their old squirrel-rifles. The market 



1862.] ^'The Siege of Cincinnati." 273 

houses, public buildings, and streets, were crowded with 
them. They came even from iN'ew York and Pennsyl- 
yania, until Greneral Wallace was compelled to telegraph 
in all directions that no more were needed. 

One of these country boys had no weapon except an 
old Revolutionary sword. Quite a crowd gathered one 
morning upon Sycamore street, where he took out his 
rusty blade, scrutinized its blunt edge, knelt down, and 
carefully whetted it for half an hour upon a door-stone ; 
then, finding it satisfactorily sharp, replaced it in the 
scabbard, and turned away with a satisfied look. His 
gravity and solemnity made it very ludicrous. 

Buell, before starting northward in pursuit of Bragg, 
was about to evacuate Nashville. Andrew Johnson, 
Military Governor of Tennessee, .implored, expostulated, 
and stormed, but without effect. He solemnly declared 
that, if all the rest of the army left, he would remain with 
his four Middle Tennessee regiments, defend the city to 
the last, and perish in its ashes, before it should be given* 
up to the enemy. Buell finally left a garrison, which, 
though weak in numbers, proved suflB.cient to hold Nash- 
ville. 

The siege of Cincinnati proved of short duration. 
Buell' s veterans, and the enthusiastic new volunteers 
soon sent the Rebels flying homeward. Then, as through 
the whole war, their appearance north of Tennessee and 
Yirginia was the sure index of disaster to their arms. 
Southern military genius did not prove adapted to the 
establishment of a navy, or to fighting on Northern soU. 

Maryland invaded, Frankfort abandoned, NashvUle 
evacuated, Tennessee and Kentucky given up almost 
without a fight, the Rebels threatening the great com- 
mercial metropolis of Ohio — these were the disastrous, 
humiliating tidings of the hour. These were, perhaps, 

18 



274 Gloomiest Days of the War. [1862. 

the gloomiest days that had "been seen during the war. 
We were paying the bitter penalty of many years of 
National wrong. 

" God works no otherwise ; no mighty birth 
But comes with throes of mortal agony ; 
No mauichild among nations of the earth 
But findeth its baptism in a stormy sea." 



1862.] Ordered to Washington. 275 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

He that outlives this day and comes safe home, 
Will staad a tip-toe when this day is named. 

—King Heiibt Y. 

Much work for tears in many an English mother, 
Whose sons lie scattered on the bleeding ground. 

King John. 

DuEiNG the siege of Cincinnati, the Managing Editot 
telegraphed nie thus : 

"Eepair to "Washington without any delay." 

An hour afterward I was upon an eastern train. 

At the Capital, I found orders to join the Army of the 
Potomac. It was during Lee' s first invasion. In Penn- 
sylvania, the governor and leading officials nearly 
doubled the Confederate army, estimating it at two 
hundred thousand men. 

Reaching Frederick, Maryland, I found more Union 
flags, proportionately, in that little city, than I had ever 
seen elsewhere. The people were intensely loyal. Four 
miles heyond, in a mountain region, I saw winding, fer- 
tile valleys of clear streams, rich in broad corn-fields ; 
and white vine-covered farm-houses, half hidden In old 
apple-orchards ; while great hay and ^rain stacks sur- 
rounded — 

"The gray barns, looking from their hazy hills 
O'er the dim waters widening in the vales." 

Tlie roads were fuU of our advancing forces, with 



276 On the War-Path. [1862. 

Ibronzed faces and muscles compacted by their long cam- 
paigning. They had just won the victory of South 
Mountain, where Hooker found exercise for his peculiar 
genius in fighting above the clouds, a"nd driving the 
enemy by an impetuous charge from a dizzy and appa- 
rently inaccessible hight. 

The heroic Army of the Potomac, which had suffered 
more, fought harder, and been defeated oftener than any 
other JSTational force, was now marching cheerily under 
the unusual inspiration of victory. But what fearful 
loads the soldiers carried ! Gun, canteen, knapsack, 
haversack, pack of blankets and clothing, often must 
have reached fifty pounds to the man. These modern 
Atlases had little chance in a race with the Rebels. 

There were crowds of sorry -looking prisoners march- 
ing to the rear ; long trains ot ambulances filled with 
our wounded soldiers, some of them walking back with 
their arms in slings, or bloody bandages about their 
necks or foreheads ; Rebel hospitals, where unfortunate 
fellows were groaning upon the straw, with arms or legs 
missing ; eleven of our lost, resting placidly side by 
side, while their comrades were digging their graves 
hard by ; the unburied dead of the enemy, lying in 
pairs or groups, behind rocks or in fence corners ; and 
then a Rebel surgeon, in bluish-gray uniform, coming in 
with a flag of truce, to look after his wounded. 

All the morning I heard the pounding of distant guns, 
and at 4 p. m., near the little village of Keedysville, I 
reached our front. On the extreme left I found an old 
friend whom I had not met for many years — Colonel 
Edward E. Cross, of the Fifth ISTew Hampshire Infantry. 
Formerly a Cincinnati journalist, afterward a miner in 
Arizona, and then a colonel at the head of a Mexican regi- 
ment, his life had been full of interest and romance. 



1862.] A Novel Kind of Duel. 277 

While living in Arizona lie incurred the displeasure 
of tlie pro- Slavery politicians, who ruled the territory. 
Mowry, their self-styled Delegate to Congress, challenged 
him — prohably upon the hypothesis that, as a North- 
erner, he would not recognize the code ; but Cross was 
an ugly subject for that experiment. He promptly ac- 
cepted, and named Burnside rifles at ten paces ! Mowry 
was probably ready to say with Falstafi"— 

" An' I thought he had been valiant and so cunning in fence, I'd 
have seen him damned ere I had challenged him." 

Both were dead shots. Their seconds placed them 
across the strong prairie wind, to interfere with their 
aim. At the first fire, a ball grazed Mowry' s ear. At the 
second, a lock of Cross' s hair was cut off. 

"■ Rather close work, is it not ?" he calmly asked of a 
bystander. 

At the third fire, Mowry' s rifle missed. His friends 
insisted that he was entitled to his fire. Those of the 
other party declared that this was monstrous, and that 
he should be killed if he attempted it. But Cross settled 
the difficulty by deciding that Mo"wry was right, and 
stood serenely, with folded arms, to receive the shot. 
The would-be Delegate was wise enough to fire into the 
air. Thus ended the bloodless duel, and the journalist 
was never challenged again. 

A year or two later, I chanced to be in El Paso, 
Mexico, shortly after Cross had visited that ancient 
city. An old cathedral, still standing, was built before 
the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. As- 
cending to the steeple. Cross pocketed and brought away 
the clapper of the old Spanish bell, which was hung^ 
^ere when the edifice was erected. 

The devout natives were greatly exasperated at this 



278 How Correspondents Avoided Expulsion. ti8G2. 

profanation, and wonld have killed the relic-hnnting 
Yankee had they caught him. I heard from them a great 
deal of swearing in bad Spanish on the snhject. 

'Now, when I greeted hun, his men were deployed in a 
corn-field, skirmishing with the enemy' s pickets. He was 
in a barn, where the balls constantly whistled, and occa- 
sionally strnck the building. He had just come in from 
the front, where Confederate bullets had torn two rents in 
the shoulder of his blouse, without breaking the sldn. 
A straggling soldier passed us, strolling down the road 
toward the Rebel pickets. 

"My young friend," said Cross, "if you don't want a 
hole through you, you had better come back." 

Just as he spoke, ping ! came a bullet, perforating the 
hat of the private, who made excellent time toward the 
rear. A moment after, a shell exploded on a bank near 
us, throwing the dirt into our faces. 

We spent the night at the house of a Union resident, 
of Keedysville. General Marcy, McClellan's father-in- 
law and chief of staff, who supped there, inquired, with 
some curiosity, how we had gained admission to the lines, 
as journalists were then nominally excluded from the 
army. We assured him that it was only by " strategy," 
the details whereof could not be divulged to outsiders. 

One of the Tribune correspondents had not left the 
army since the Peninsular campaign, and, remaining 
constantly within the lines, his position had never been 
questioned. Another, who had a nominal appointment 
upon the stafi" of a major-general, wore a saber and passed 
for an officer. I had an old pass, without date, from 
Greneral Burnside, authorizing the bearer to go to and fro 
from his head- quarters at all times, which enabled me to 
go by all guards with ease. 

Marcy engaged lodgings at the house for McCleUan ; 



1862] Shameful Surrender of Harper's Ferry. 279 

Ibut an hour after, a message was received that the general 
thought it "better to sleep upon the ground, near the 
"bivouac-fires, as an example for the troops. 

This night came intelligence of the surrender, to Stone- 
wall Jackson, of Harper' s Ferry, including the impreg- 
nahle position of Maryland Hights, and our army. 

Colonel Miles, who commanded, atoned for his weak- 
ness with his life, being killed "by a stray shot just after 
he had capitulated. Colonel Thomas H. Ford, ex-Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of Ohio, who was stationed on the 
Hights, professed to have a written order from Miles, his 
superior officer, to exercise his own discretion about evac- 
uating ; but he could not exhibit the paper, and stated 
that he had lost it. He gave up that key to the position 
without a struggle. It was like leaving the rim of a tea- 
cup, to go down to the bottom for a defensive point. He 
was afterward tried before a court-martial, but saved from 
punishment, and permitted to resign, through the clem- 
ency of President Lincoln. In any other country he 
would have been shot. 

On September 16th, General McClellan established his 
head-quarters in a great shaded brick farm-house. 

Under one of the old trees sat General Sumner, at 
sixty-four erect, agile, and soldierly, with snow-white 
hair. A few yards distant, in an open field, a party of 
officers were suddenly startled by two shells which 
dropped very near them. The group broke up and scat- 
tered with great alacrity. 

"Why," remarked Sumner, with a peculiar smile, 
"the shells seem to excite a good deal of commotion 
among those young gentlemen !" 

It appeared to amuse and surprise the old war-horse 
that anybody should be startled by bullets or shots. 

Lying upon the ground near by, with his head resting 



280 A Cavaley Stampede. [1862. 

upon his arm, was another officer wearing the two stars 
of a major-general. 

"Who is that 1" I asked of a journalistic friend. 

"Fighting Joe Hooker," was the answer. 

"With his side-whiskers, rather heavy countenance, 
and transparent cheeks, which revealed the blood like 
those of a blushing girl, he hardly looked all my fancy 
had painted him. 

Toward evening, at the head of his corps, preceded 
by the pioneers tearing away fences for the column, 
Hooker led a forward movement across Antietam Creek. 
His milk-white horse, a rare target to Rebel sharpshooters, 
could be seen distinctly from afar against the deep green 
landscape. I could not believe that he was riding into 
battle upon such a steed, for it seemed suicidal. 

In an hour we halted, and the cavalry went forward 
to reconnoiter, A few minutes after, Mr. George W. 
Smalley, of The Tribune^ said to me : 

" There will be a cavalry stampede in about five min- 
utes. Let us ride out to the front and see it." 

Galloping up the road, and waiting two or three min- 
utes, we heard three six-pound shots in rapid succession, 
and a little fifer who had climbed a tree, shouted : 

"There they come, like the devil, with the Rebels 
after them !" 

From a vast cloud of dust, emerged soon our troopers 
in hot haste and disorder. They had suddenly awakened 
a Rebel battery, which opened upon them. 

"We will stir them up," said Hooker, as the cavalry 
commander made his report. 

' ' "Wliy, General," replied the major, ' ' they have some 
batteries up there !" 

"Well, sir," answered Hooker, "have'ntwe got as 
many batteries as they have % Move on !" 







s\ 




1862.] "Fighting Joe Hooker" in Battle. 281 

McClellan, who had accompanied the expedition thus 
far, rode Iback to the rear. Hooker pressed forward, ac- 
companied by General Meade, tlien commanding a divi- 
sion — a dark-haired, scholarly-looking gentleman in spec- 
tacles. The grassy fields, the shining streams, and the 
vernal forests, stretched out in silent beauty. With their 
bright muskets, clean uniforms, and floating flags, 
Hooker' s men moved on with assured faces. 

" 'Twere worth ten years of peaceful life, 
One glance at their array." 

"With a very heavy force of skirmishers, we pushed 
on, finding no enemy. Our line was three-quarters of a 
mile in length. Hooker was on the extreme right, close 
upon the skirmishers. 

As we approached a strip of woods, a hundred yards 
wide, far on our extreme left, we heard a single musket. 
Then there was another, then another, and in an instant 
our whole line blazed like a train of powder, in one long 
sheet of flame. 

Right on our front, through the narrow belt of woods, 
so near that it seemed that we might toss a pebble to 
them, rose a countless horde of Rebels, almost instantly 
obscured by the fire from their muskets and the smoke of 
the batteries. 

My confrere and myself were within a few yards of 
Hooker. It was a very hot place. We could not dis- 
tinguish the "ping" of the individual bullets, but their 
combined and mingled hum was like the din of a great 
Lowell factory. Solid shot and shell came shrieking 
through the air, but over our heads, as we were on the 
extreme frolit. 

Hooker — common-place before — the moment he heard 
the guns, loomed up into gigantic stature. His eye 



282 The Rebels Waver and Break. [i862. 

gleamed with the grand anger of "battle. He seemed to 
know exactly what to do, to feel that he was master of 
the situation, and to impress every one else with the fact. 
Turning to one of his staff, and pointing to a spot near 
us, he said : 

" Go, and tell Captain — to hring his battery 

and plant it there at once ! " 

The lieutenant rode away. After giving one or two 
further orders with great clearness, rapidity, and pre- 
cision, Hooker's eye turned again to that mass of Rehel 
infantry in the woods, and he said to another officer, 
with great emphasis : 

" Gfo, and tell Captain to bring his battery here 

instantly I" 

Sending more messages to the various divisions and 
batteries, only a single member of the staff remained. 
Once more scanning the woods vsrith his eager eye, 
Hooker directed the aid : 

"Go, and tell Captain — to bring that battery 

here without one second's delay. Why, my God, how 
he can pour it into their infantry !" 

By this time, several of the body-guard had fallen 
from their saddles. Our horses plunged wildly. A shell 
plowed the ground under my rearing steed, and another 
exploded near Mr. Smalley, throwing great clouds of 
dust over both of us. Hooker leaped his white horse 
over a low fence into an adjacent orchard, whither we 
gladly followed. Though we did not move more than 
thirty yards, it took us comparatively out of range. 

The desired battery, stimulated by three successive 
messages, came up with smoking horses, at a full run, 
was unlimbered in the twinkling of an eye, and be- 
gan to pour shots into the enemy, who were also suffer- 
ing severely from our infantry discharges. It was not 



1862.] A Night Among the Pickets. 283 

many seconds before they Ibegan to waver. Through the 
rifting smoke, we could see their line sway to and fro ; 
then it broke like a thaw in a great river. Hooker rose 
up in his saddle, and, in a voice of suppressed thunder, 
exclaimed : 

" There they go, Gt—d d— n them ! Forward I" 

Our whole line moved on. It was now nearly dark. 
Having shared the experience of "Fighting Joe Hooker" 
quite long enough, I turned toward the rear. Fresh 
troops were pressing forward, and stragglers were ranged 
in long lines behind rocks and trees. 

Riding slowly along a grassy slope, as I supposed 
quite out of range, my meditations were disturbed by a 
cannon-ball, whose rush of air fanned my face, and made 
my horse shrink and rear almost upright. The next mo- 
ment came another behind me, and by the great blaze of 
a fire of rails, which the soldiers had built, I saw it 
ricochet down the slope, like a foot-ball, and pass right 
through a column of our troops in blue, who were 
marching steadily forward. The gap which it made was 
immediately closed up. 

Men with litters were groping through the darkness, 
bearing the wounded back to the ambulances. 

At nine o'clock, I wandered to a farm-house, occu- 
pied by some of our pickets. We dared not light can- 
dles, as it was within range of the enemy. The fam- 
ily had left. I tied my horse to an apple-tree, and lay 
down upon the parlor floor, with my saddle for a pillow. 
At intervals during the night, we heard the popping of 
musketry, and at the first glimpse of dawn the picket- 
officer shook me by the arm. 

"My friend," said he, "you had better go away as 
soon as you can; this place is getting rather hot for 
civilians." 



284 The Battle of Antietam. [i862. 

I rode around througli tlie field, for shot and shell 
were already screaming up the narrow lane. 

Thus commenced the long, hotly-contested battle of 
Antietam. Our line was three miles in length, with 
Hooker on the right, Burnside on the left, and a great 
gap in the middle, occupied only by artillery ; while 
Fitz-John Porter, with his fine corps, was held in re- 
serve. From dawn until nearly dark, the two great ar- 
mies wrestled like athletes, straining every muscle, los- 
ing here, gaining there, and at many points fighting the 
same ground over and over again. It was a fierce, 
sturdy, indecisive conflict. 

Five thousand spectators viewed the struggle from a 
hill comparatively out of range. Not more than three 
persons were struck there during the day. McClellan 
and his staff occupied another ridge half a mile in the rear. 

"By Heaven ! it was a goodly siglit to see, 
For one who had no friend or brother there." 

^"0 one who looked upon that wonderful panorama 
can describe or forget it. Every hill and valley, every 
corn-field, grove, and cluster of trees, was fiercely fought 
for. 

The artillery was unceasing ; we could often count 
more than sixty guns to the minute. It was like thun- 
der ; and the musketry sounded like the patter of rain- 
drops in an April shower. On the great field were 
riderless horses and scattering men, clouds of dirt from 
solid shot and exploding shells, long dark lines of infan- 
try swaying to and fro, with columns of smoke rising 
from their muskets, red flashes and white puffs from the 
batteries — with the sun shining brightly on all this scene 
of tumult, and beyond it, upon the dark, rich woods, 
and the clear blue mountains south of the Potomac. 



1862.] Fearful Slaughter in the Corn-field. 285 

We saw clearly our entire line, except tlie extreme 
left, where Burnside was hidden by intervening ridges ; 
and at times the infantry and cavalry of the Rebels. We 
could see them press our men, and hear their shrill 
yells of triumph. Then our columns in blue would move 
forward, driving them back, with loud, deep-mouthed, 
sturdy cheers. Once, a great mass of Rebels, in brown 
and gray, came pouring impetuously through a corn- 
field, forcing back the Union troops. For a moment 
both were hidden under a hill ; and then up, over the 
slope came our soldiers, flying in confusion, with the en- 
emy in hot pursuit. But soon after, up rose and opened 
upon them two long lines of men in blue, with shining 
muskets, who, hidden behind a ridge, had been lying in 
wait. The range was short, and the fire was deadly. 

The Rebels instantly poured back, and were again lost 
for a moment behind the hill, our troops hotly following. 
In a few seconds, they reappeared, rusliing tumultuously 
back into the corn-field. While they were so thick that 
they looked like swarming bees, one of our batteries, at 
short range, suddenly commenced dropping shots among 
them. We could see with distinctness the. explosions of 
the shells, and sometimes even thought we detected frag- 
ments of human bodies flying through the air. In that 
field, the next day, I counted sixty-four of the enemy's 
dead, lying almost in one mass. 

Hooker, wounded before noon, was carried from the 
field. Had he not been disabled, he would probably 
have made it a decisive conflict. Realizing that it was 
one of the world' s great days, he said : 

" I would gladly have compromised with the enemy 
by receiving a mortal wound at night, could I have 
remained at the head of my troops until the sun went 
down." 



286 Best Battle-Report of the War. [i862 

On tlie left, Burnside, who had a strong, high stone 
"bridge to carry, was sorely pressed. McClellan denied 
his earnest requests for re-enforcements, though the hest 
corps of the army was then held in reserve. 

The Fifteenth Massachusetts Infantry took into the 
hattle five hundred and fifty men, and hrought out only 
one hundred and fifty-six. The Nineteenth Massachu- 
setts, out of four hundred and six men, lost aU hut one 
hundred and forty-seven, including every commissioned 
ofiicer above a first lieutenant. The Fifth New Hamp- 
shire, three hundred strong, lost one hundred and ten 
privates and fourteen officers. Colonel Cross, who sel- 
dom went into battle without receiving wounds, was 
struck in the head by a piece of shell early in the day, 
but with face crimsoned and eyes dimmed with blood, he 
led his men until night closed the indecisive conflict. 

At night, the four Tribune correspondents, who had 
witnessed the battle, met at a little farm-house. They 
prepared hasty reports, by a flickering tallow candle, in 
a narrow room crowded "with wounded and dying. 

Mr. Smalley had been Tvith Hooker from the firing of 
the first gun. Twice his horse had been shot under him, 
and twice his clothing was cut by bullets. Without 
food, without sleep, greatly exhausted physically and 
mentally, he started for New York, writing his report on 
a railway train during the night, by a very dim light. 

Reaching New York at seven in the morning, he 
found the printers awaiting him ; and, an hour later, his 
account of the conflict, filling five Tribune columns, was 
being cried in the streets by the news-boys. Notwith- 
standing the adverse circumstances of its preparation, it 
was vivid and truthful, and was considered the best bat- 
tle-report of the war. 



1862. j The Day After the Battle. 287 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



— — — — Onr doubts are traitors, 
And make us lose the good we oft miglit wia, 
By fearing to attempt. 

Heastjbe fob Measttbe. 



I]sr a lull of the musketry, during tlie battle of Antie- 
tam, McClellan rode forward toward the front. On the 
way, he met a Massachusetts general, who was his old 
friend and class-mate. 

" Gordon," he asked, "how are your men ?" 

"They have behayed admirably," replied Gordon; 
"but they are now somewhat scattered." 

"Collect them at once. We must fight to-night and 
fight to-morrow. This is our golden opportunity. If 
we cannot whip the Rebels here, we may jhst as well 
all die on the field." 

That was the spirit of the whole army. It was uni- 
versally expected that McClellan would renew the attack 
at daylight the next morning ; but, though he had many 
thousand fresh men, and defeat could only be repulse to 
him, while to the enemy, with the river in his rear, it 
would be ruin, his constitutional timidity prevented. It 
was the costliest of mistakes. 

Thursday proved a day of rest — such rest as can be 
found with three miles of dead men to bury, and thou- 
sands of wounded to bring from the field. It was a day 
of standing on the line where the battle closed — of inter- 
mittent sharp-shooting and discharges of artillery, but 



288 Down Among the Dead Men. [isqz 

no general skirmisliing, or attempt to advance on eitlier 
side. 

Riding out to the front of G-eneral Coucli' s line, I 
found tlie Rebels and our own soldiers mingling freelj 
on the disputed ground, bearing away tlie wounded. I 
was scanning a Rebel battery with my field-glass, at the 
distance of a quarter of a mile, when one of our pickets 
exclaimed : 

" Put up your glass, sir ! The Johnnies will shoot in 
a minute, if they see you using it." 

In front of Hancock' s lines, a flag of truce was raised. 
Hancock — erect and soldierly, with smooth face, light 
eyes, and brown hair, the finest-looking general in our 
service — accompanied by Meagher, rode forward into a 
corn-field, and met the young fire-eating brigadier of the 
Rebels, Roger A. Pryor. Pryor insisted that he had 
seen a white fiag on our front, and asked if we desired 
permission to remove our dead and wounded. Hancock 
indignantly denied that we had asked for a truce, as we 
claimed the ground, stating that, through the whole day, 
we had been removing and ministering to both Union 
and Rebel wounded. He suggested a cessation of sharp- 
shooting until this work could be completed. Pryor 
declined this, and in ten minutes the firing reopened. 

"A great victory," said Wellington, "is the most 
awful thing in the world, except a great defeat." An- 
tietam, though not an entire victory, had all its terrific 
features. Our casualties footed up to twelve thousand 
three hundred and fifty-two, of whom about two thou- 
sand were killed on the field. 

Between the fences of a road immediately beyond the 
corn-field, in a space one hundred yards long, I counted 
more than two hundred Rebel dead, lying where they 
fell. Elsewhere, over many acres, they were strewn 



18G2.] Lee Permitted to Escape. 289 

singly, in groujps, and occasionally in masses, piled np 
almost like cord- wood. They were lying — some with the 
human form nndistinguishable, others with no outward 
indication of wounds— in all the strange positions of vio- 
lent death. All had blackened faces. There were forms 
with every rigid muscle strained in fierce agony, and 
those with hands folded peacefully upon the hosom ; 
some still clutching their guns, others with arm upraised, 
and one with a single open finger pointing to heaven. 
Several remained hanging over a fence which they were 
climbing when the fatal shot struck them. 

It was several days before all the wounded were re- 
moved from the field. Many were shockingly mutilated ; 
but the most revolting spectacle I saw was that of a 
soldier, with three fingers cut ofi" by a bullet, leaving 
ragged, bloody shreds of flesh. 

On Thursday night the sun went down with the 
opposing forces face to face, and their pickets within 
stone's throw of each other. On Friday morning the 
Rebel army was in Yirginia, the IsTational army in Mary- 
land. Between dark and daylight, Lee evacuated the 
position, and carried his whole army across the river. 
He had no empty breastworks with which to endow us ; 
bat he left a field plowed with shot, watered with blood, 
and sown thick with dead. We found the debris of his 
hite camps, two disabled pieces of artiller}^, a few hun- 
dred of his stragglers, two thousand of his wounded, and 
as many more of his unburied dead ; but not a single 
field-piece or caisson, ambulance or wagon, not a tent, a 
box of stores, or a pound of ammunition. He carried with 
him the supplies gathered in Maryland and the rich 
BiDoils of Harper's Ferry. 

It was a very bitter disappointment to the army and 
the country. 

19 



290 The John Brown Engine-House. [1862. 

BOLITAR HiGHTS, Md., September 25, 1862. 

Adieu to western Maryland, with the stanch loyalty 
of its suffering people ! Adieu to Sharpsburg, which, 
cut to pieces by our own shot and shell as no other 
village in America ever was, gave us the warm welcome 
that comes from the heart ! Adieu to the drenched 
field of Antietam, with its glorious Wednesday, writing 
for our army a record than which nothing brighter shines 
tlirough history ; with its fatal Thursday, permitting the 
clean, leisurely escape of the foe down into the valley, 
across the difficult ford, and up the Yu-ginia Hights ! 
Our army might have been driven back ; it could never 
have been captured or cut to pieces. Failure was only 
repulse ; success was crowning, decisive, final victory. 
The enemy saw this, and walked undisturbed out of the 
snare. 

Three days ago, our army moved down the left bank 
of the Potomac, climbing the narrow, tortuous road that 
winds around the foot of the mountains ; under Mary- 
land Hights ; across the long, crooked ford above the 
blackened timbers of the railroad bridge ; then up among 
the long, bare, deserted walls of the ruined Government 
Armory, past the engine-house which Old John Brown 
made historic ; up through the dingy, antique, oriental, 
looking town of Harper's Ferry, sadly worn, almost 
washed away by the ebb and flow of war ; up through 
the village of Bolivar to these Hights, where we pitched 
our tents. 

Behind and below us rushed the gleaming river, till 
its dark, shining surface was broken by rocks. Across 
it came a line of our stragglers, wading to the knees with 
staggering steps. Beyond it, the broad forest-clad Mary- 
land Hights rose gloomy and somber. Down behind 
me, to the river, winding across it like a slender S, then 



1862.] President Lincoln Reviews the Army. 291 

extending for half a mile on the other side, far up along 
the Maryland hill, stretched a division-train of snowy 
■wagons, standing out in strong relief from the dark 
hackground of wsder and mountain. 

Two weeks ago shots exchanged "between the army 
of Slavery and the army of Freedom shrieked and 
screamed over the engine-house, where, for two days, 
Old John Brown held the State of Virginia at "bay. A 
week ago its walls were again shaken hy the thunders 
of cannonade, when the armies met in fruitless battle. 
Last night, within rifle-shot of it, the President's Procla- 
mation of Emancipation was heard gladly among thirty 
thousand soldiers. 

October 2. 

President Lincoln arrived here yesterday, and re- 
viewed the troops, accompanied hy McClellan, Sumner, 
Hancock, Meagher, and other generals. He appeared 
in black, wearing a silk hat ; and his tall, slender form, 
and plain clothing, contrasted strangely with the broad 
shoulders and the blue and gold of the major-general 
commanding. 

He is unusually thin and silent, and looks weary and 
careworn. He regarded the old engine-house with great 
interest. It reminded him, he said, of the Illinois custom 
of naming locomotives after fleet animals, such as the 
"Reindeer," the "Antelope," the " Flying Dutchman, " 
etc. At the time of the John Brown raid, a new locomo- 
tive was named the " Scared Yirginians." 

The troops everywhere cheered him with warm en- 
thusiasm. 

October 13. 

The cavalry raid of the Rebel G-eneral Stuart, around 
our entire army, into Maryland and Pennsylvania, and 
back again, crossing the Potomac without serious loss, is 



292 Dodging Eebel Cannon-Balls. [1862. 

tlie one tlieme of conversation. It was audacious and 
"brilliant. On liis return, Stuart passed witliin five miles 
of McClellan's head-quarters, wMcli were separated from 
the rest of the troops by half a mile, and guarded only by 
a Kew York regiment. Some of the staff officers are very 
indignant when they are told that Stuart knew the inter- 
est of the Rebels too well to capture our commander. 

Chablestown, Virginia, October 16. 

A reconnoissance to the front, commanded by Gen- 
eral Hancobk. The column moved briskly over the broad 
turnpike, through ample fields rich with shocks of corn, 
past stately farm-houses, with deep shade-trees and 
orchards, by gray barns, surrounded by hay and grain 
stacks— beyond our lines, over the debatable ground, , 
past the Rebel picket- stations, in sight of Charlestown, 
and yet no enemy appeared. 

We began to think Confederates a myth. But sud- 
denly a gun belched forth in front of us ; another, and 
yet another, and rifled shot came singing by, cutting 
through the tree-branches with sharp, incisive music. 

Two of our batteries instantly unlimbered, and replied. 
Our column filled the road. Nearly all the Rebel missiles 
struck in an apple-orchard within twenty yards of the 
turnpike ; but our men would persist in climbing the 
trees and gathering the fruit, in spite of the shrieking 
shells. 

I have not yet learned to avoid bowing my head in- 
stinctively as a shot screams by ; but some old stagers 
sit perfectly erect, and laughingly remind me of Napo- 
leon' s remark to a young officer : ' ' My friend, if that 
shell were really your fate, it would hit you and kill yow, 
if you were a hundred feet underground." 

We coiild plainly see the Rebel cavalry. Far in ad- 



1862.] "His Soul is Marching On." 293 

< 

vance of all others, was a rider on a milk- white liorse, 
wliicli made him a conspicuous mark. The sharpshooters 
tried in vain to pick him off, while he sat viewing the 
artillery drill as complacently as if enjoying a panto- 
mime. Some of our officers declare that they have seen 
that identical steed and rider on the Rehel front in every 
fight from Yorktown to Antietam. 

After an artillery fire of an hour, in which we lost 
eight or ten men, the Rehels evacuated Charlestown, and 
we entered. 

The troops take a very keen interest in every thing 
connected with the historic old man, who, two years ago, 
yielded up his life in a field which is near our camp. 
They visit it by hundreds, and pour into the court-house, 
now open and deserted, where he was tried, and made 
that wonderful speech which will never die. They scan 
clo^ly the jail, where he wrote and spoke so many elec- 
tric words. As, our column passed it, one countenance 
only was visible within — that of a negro, looking through 
a grated window. How his dusky face lit up behind its 
prison-bars at the sight of our column, and the words — 

" His soul is marching on!" 

sung by a Pennsylvania regiment ! 

Our pickets descried a solitary horseman, with a 
basket on his arm, jogging soberly toward them. He 
proved a dark mulatto of about thirty-five, and halted at 
their order. 

"Where are you from ?" 

" Southern army, Cap'n." 

" Where are you going?" 

" Goin' to you'se all." 

"What do you want ?" 



294 An Eminently " Intelligent Contraband." [1862. 

"Protection, "boss. You won't send me back, will 
you?" 

"No, come in. Whose servant are you ?" 
" Cap'n Rhett's, of South Caroliny. You'se heard of 
Mr. Barnwell Rhett, Editor of The Charleston Mercury ; 
Cap'n is his brother, and commands a battery." 
"How did you get away ?" 

"Cap'n gave me fifteen dollars this morning. He 
said: 'John, go out and forage for butter and eggs.' 
So you see, boss" (with a broad grin), " I'se out foraging. 
I pulled my hat over my eyes, and jogged along on the 
cap'n's horse, with this basket on my arm, right by our 
pickets. They never challenged me once. If they had 
I should have shown them this." 

And he produced from his pocket an order in pencil 
from Captain Rhett to pass his servant John, on horse- 
back, in search of butter and eggs. • 
" "Why did you expect protection ?" 
" Heard so in Maryland, before the Proclamation." 
" What do you know about the Proclamation ?" 
" Read it, sir, in a Richmond paper." 
"What is it?" 

" That every slave is to be emancipated after the first 
day of next January, Isn't that it, boss ?" 

" Something like it. How did you learn to read ?" 
"A New York lady stopping at the hotel taught me." 
"Did you ever hear of Old John Brown ?" 
" Hear of him ! Lord bless you, yes ; I've his life now 
in my trunk in Charleston, I' ve read it to heaps of col- 
ored folks. They think John Brown was almost a god. 
Just say you are a friend of Ms, and any slave will kiss 
your feet, if you will let him. They think, if he was 
only alive now, he would be king. How he did frighten 
the white folks I It was Sunday morning, I was waiter 



1862.] « The Lord Bless You, General !" 295 

at tlie Mills House, in Charleston. A lady from Massa- 
chusetts breakfasted at my table. ' John,' she says, ' I 
want to see a negro church. Where is the best one V 
' Not any open to-day. Missus,' I told her. ' Why not V 
' Because a Mr. John Brown has raised an insurrection 
in Yirginny, and they don't let the negroes go into the 
street to-day.' ' Well,' she says, ' they had better look 
out, or they will get their white churches shut up, too, 
one of these days.' " 

This truly intelligent contraband, being taken to Mc- 
Clellan, replied very modestly and intelligently to ques- 
tions about the numbers and organization of the Rebel 
army. At the close of the interview, he asked anx- 
iously : 

" General, you won't send me back, will you V 

"Yes," replied McClellan, with a smile, " I believe I 
will." 

"I hope you won't. General" (with great earnest- 
ness). " I come to you'se all for protection, and I hope 
you won't." 

" Well, then, John, you are at liberty to stay with 
the army, if you like, or to go where you please. ISTo 
one can ever make you a slave again." 

" May the Lord bless you, General ! I thought you 
wouldn't drive me out. You'se the best friend I ever 
had. I shall never forget you till I die." 

BoLiTAR Eights, October 25. 

"The view from the mountains at Harper's Ferry," 
said Thomas Jefferson, "is worth a journey across the 
Atlantic." 

Let us approach it at the lower price of climbing 
Maryland Hights. The air is soft and wooing to-day. 
It is the time — 



296 Curiosities of the Signal-Corps. [i862. 



-"just ere the frost 



Prepares to pave old Winter's way, 

When Autumn, in a reverie lost, 
The mellow daylight dreams away ; 

When Summer comes in musing mind 
To gaze once more on hill and dell. 

To mark how many sheaves they hind, 
And see if all are ripened well." 

Half way np the- mountain, you rest your panting 
horse at a battery, among bottle- shaped Dahlgrens, sure 
at thirty-five hundred yards, and capable at their utmost 
elevation of a range of three miles and a half; black, 
solemn Parrotts, with iron-banded breech, and shining 
howitzers of brass. Far up, accessible only to footmen, 
is a long breast- work, where two of our companies re- 
pulsed a Rebel regiment. How high the tide of war 
must run, when its waves wash this mountain-top ! 
Here, on the extreme summit, is an open tent of the 
Signal- Corps. It is labeled : 

"Don't touch the instkuments. Ask i^^o ques- 

TlOIfS." 

Inside, two operators are gazing at the distant hights, 
through fixed telescopes, calling out, "45," "169," "81," 
etc., which the clerk records. Each number represents 
a letter, syllable, or abbreviated word. 

Looking through the long glass toward one of the 
seven signal- stations, from four to twenty miles away, 
communicating with this, yoa see a flag, with some large 
black figure upon a white foreground. It rises ; so many 
waves to the right ; so many to the left. Then a difierent 
flag takes its place, and rises and falls in turn. 

By these combinations, from one to three words per 
minute are telegraphed. The operator slowly reads 
the distant signal to you: "Two — hundred — Rebel — cav- 



1862.] Beautiful View from Maryland Hights. 297 

airy — riding — out — of — Charlestown — this — way — field- 
piece — on — road," and it occupies five minutes. Five 
miles is an easy distance to communicate, but messages 
can be sent twenty miles. The Signal-Corps keep on the 
front ; their services are of great value. Several of the 
members have been wounded and some killed. 

You are on the highest point of the Blue Ridge, four 
thousand feet above the sea, one thousand above the 
Potomac. 

Along the path by which you came, climbs a pony ; 
on the pony's back a negro ; on the negro's head a 
bucket of water ; then a mule, bearing a coffee- sack, con- 
taining at each end a keg of water. Thus all provisions 
are brought up. Here, in the early mornmg, you could 
only look out upon a cold, shoreless sea of white fog. 
Now, you look down upon all the country within a ra- 
dius of twenty miles, as you would gaze into your garden 
from your own house-top. 

You see the Potomac winding far away in a thread of 
silver, broken by shrubs, rocks, and islands. At your 
feet lies Pleasant Valley, a great furrow — two miles 
across, from edge to edge — plowed through the moun- 
tains. It is full of camps, white villages of tentSj and 
black groups of guns. You see cozy dwellings, with 
great, well-filled barns, red brick mills, straw-colored 
fields dotted with shocks of corn and reaching far up into 
the dark, hill-side woods, green sward-fields, mottled with 
orchards, and a little shining stream. A dim haze rests 
upon the mountain-guarded picture, and the soft wind 
seems to sing with Whittier : 

" Yet calm and patient Nature keepa 
Her ancient promise well, 
Tliougli o'er her bloom and greenness sweeps 
The battle's breath of hell. 



298 BUENSIDE AT HIS TeNT. [1862. 

" And still she walks in golden hours 
Through harvest-happj farms, 
And still she wears her fruits and flowers, 
Like jewels on her arms. 

" StUl in the cannon's pause we hear 
Her sweet thanksgiving psalm ; 
Too near to God for doubt or fear, 
She shares the eternal calm. 

" She sees with clearer eye than ours 
The good of suffering born, — 
The hearts that blossom like her flowers, 
And ripen like her corn." 

See the regiments on dress parade ; long lines of dark 
Hue, witli Ibayonets that flash brightly in the waning 
sunlight. When dismissed, each breaks into companies, 
which move toward their quarters like monster antedilu- 
vian reptiles, with myriads of blue legs. 

On that distant hill-side, just at the forest' s edge, in the 
midst of a group of tents, are Burnside's head- quarters. 
Through your field-glass, you see standing in front of 
them the military man whose ambition has a limit. He 
has twice refused to accept the chief command of the 
army. There stands Burnside, the favorite of the troops, 
in blue shirt, knit jacket, ^ and riding-boots, with frank, 
manly face, and full, laughing eyes. 

Under your feet are Bolivar Hights, crowned with 
the tents of Couch' s Corps — dingy by reason of long ser- 
vice, like a Spring snow-drift through which the dirt be- 
gins to sift. You see the quaint old village of Harper' s 
Ferry, and glimpses of the Potomac — gold in the sunset — 
with trees and rocks mirrored in its mellow face. 

The sun goes down, and the glory of the western hills 
fades as 3^ou slowly descend ; but the picture you have 
seen is one which memory paints in fast colors. 



1862.] On the March Southward. 299 



CHAPTER XXV. 



A woman moved ia like a fountain troubled. 
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty. 

Taming of tub Shbew. 



WHEisr the army left Harper's Ferry, on a forced 
marcli, it moyed, with incredilble celerity, thirty miles in 
nine days ! 

The Virginians east of the Blue Ridge were nearly 
all hot Secessionists. The troops, who had hehaved well 
among the Union people of Maryland, saw the contrast, 
and spoiled the Egyptians accordingly. I think if Pha- 
raoh had seen his homestead passed over iDy a hungry, 
hostile force, he would have let the people go. 

In the presence of the army, many professed a sort of 
loyal neutrality, or neutral loyalty ; hut I did not hear a 
single white Virginian of either sex claim to he an uncon- 
ditional Unionist. 

At Woodgrove, one evening, finding that we should 
not go into camp hefore midnight, I sought supper and 
lodging at a private house of the hetter class. My mid- 
dle-aged host and his two young, unmarried sisters, were 
glad to entertain some one from the army, to protect their 
dwelling against stragglers. 

The elder girl, of about eighteen, was almost a mono- 
maniac upon the war. She declared she had no aspira- 
tion for heaven, if any Yankees were to he there. She 
would he proud to kiss the dirtiest, raggedest soldier in 



300 Rebel Gtirl with a Sharp Tongue. [i862. 

the Rebel army. I refrained from discussing politics 
witli her, and we talked of other subjects. 

During the evening, Generals Gorman and Burns 
reached the house to seek shelter for the night. The of- 
ficers, discovering the sensitiveness of the poor girl, ex- 
pressed the most ultra sentiments. Well educated, and 
with a tongue like a rapier, she was at times greatly ex- 
cited, and the blood crimsoned her face ; but she out- 
talked them all. 

" By-the-way," asked Burns, mischievously, " do you 
ever read Tlie Tribune f 

She replied, with intense indignation : 

" Read it ! I would not touch it with a pair of tongs ! 
It is the most infamous Abolition, negro-equality sheet in 
the whole world !" 

" So a great many people say," continued Burns. 
" However, here is one of its correspondents." 

" In this room?" 
" Yes, madam." 

" He must be even worse than you, who come down 
here to murder us ! Where is he ?" 

" Sitting in the corner there, reading letters." 

' ' I thought you were deceiving me. That is no Tri- 
hune correspondent, I do not believe you." (To me :) 
"This Yankee officer says that you write for The New 
York Tribune. You don't, do you ?" 

"Yes, madam." 

"' Why, you seem to be a gentleman. It is not true ! 
It's a jest between you just to make me angry.' 

At last convinced, she withheld altogether from me 
the expected vituperation, but assailed Burns in a style 
which made him very glad to abandon the unequal con- 
test. She relentlessly persisted that he should always 
wear his star, for nobody would suspect him of being a 



1862.] The Negroes " Watching and Waiting.'* 301 

general if he appeared witliont his uniform — that he was 
the worst type of the most obnoxious Yankee, etc. 

At Upperyille, the next day, I inquired of a woman 
who was scrutinizing us from her door : 

'' Have you seen any Rebel pickets this morning ?" 

She replied, indignantly : 

" No ! Why do you call them Rebels V ' 

"As you please, madam ; what do you call them?" 

" I call them Southern heroes, sir !" 

The negroes poured into our lines whenever permitted. 

"Well, Uncle," I asked of a white-haired patriarch, 
who was tottering along the road, "are you a Rebel, 
like everybody else ?" 

" No, sir ! What should I be a Rebel for ? I have 
been wanting to come to you all a heap of times ; but I 
just watched and waited." 

Watching and waiting 1 Four millions of negroes 
were watching and waiting from the beginning of the war 
until President Lincoln' s Proclamation. 

On the march. Major O'Neil, of General Meagher's 
staff, started with a message to Burnside, who was a few 
miles on our left. Unsuspectingly, he rode right into a 
squad of cavalry dressed in United States uniform. He 
found that they were Stuart's Rebels in disguise, and 
that he was a captive. O'Neil had only just been ex- 
changed from Libby Prison, and his prospect was dis- 
heartening. The delighted Rebels sent him to their head- 
quarters in Bloomfield, under guard of a lieutenant and 
two men. But, on reaching the village, they found the 
head-quarters closed. 

"I wonder where our forces are gone," said the 
Rebel officer. "Oh, here they are I Men, guard the 
prisoner while I ride to them." 

And he galloped down the street to a company of 



302 Removal of General McClellan. [i862. 

approaching cavalry. Just as lie reached them, they 
leveled their carbines, and cried : 

" Surrender!" 

He had made precisely the same mistake as Major 
O'Neil, and ridden into our cavalry instead of his own. 
So, after spending three hours in the hands of the Rebels, 
0']^5"eil found himself once more in our lines, accompanied 
by three Rebel prisoners. 

The slaveholders complained greatly of the depreda- 
tions of our army. A very wealthy planter, who had 
lost nothing of much value, drew for me a frightful pic- 
ture of impending starvation. 

"I could bear it myself," exclaimed this Virginian 
Pecksniff, "but it is very hard for these little negroes, 
who are almost as dear to me as my own children," 

He had one of the young Africans upon his knee, and 
it was quite as white as " his own children," who were 
running about the room. The only perceptible differ- 
ence was that its hair was curly, while theirs was 
straight. 

At Warrenton, on the 7th of November, McClellan 
was relieved from the command of the Army of the Po- 
tomac. He issued the following farewell : 

" An order from the President devolves upon Major-General Burn- 
side the command of this army. In parting from you, I cannot ex- 
press the love and gratitude I bear you. As an army, you have grown 
under my care ; in you I have never found doubt or coldness. The bat- 
tles you have fought under my command will brightly live in our 
nation's history; the glory you have achieved, our mutual perils and 
fatigues, the graves of our comrades fallen in battle and by disease, the 
broken forms of those whom wounds and sickness have disabled, make 
the strongest associations which can exist among men. United still by an 
indissoluble tie, we shall ever be comrades in supporting the Constitu- 
tion of our country and the nationality of its people." 



1862.] Pickets Talking Across the River. 303 

McClellan's political and . personal friends were 
aggrieved and indignant at his removal in the midst of a 
campaign. Three of his staff officers even made a fool- 
ish attempt to assault a Tribune correspondent, on 
account of the supposed hostility of that journal toward 
their commander. General McClellan, upon hearing of 
it, sent a disclaimer and apology, and the officers were 
soon heartily ashamed. 

The withdrawal was worked up to its utmost dra- 
matic effect. Immediately after reading the farewell order 
to all the troops, there was a final review, in which the 
outgoing and incoming generals, with their long staffs, 
rode along the lines. Salutes were fired and colors 
dipped. At some points, the men cheered warmly, but 
the new regiments were "heroically reticent." McClel- 
lan' s chief strength was with the rank and file. 

Burnside pushed the army rapidly forward to the 
Rappahannock. The Rebels held Fredericksburg, on 
the south bank. The men conversed freely across the 
stream. One day I heard a dialogue like this : 

" Halloo, butternut !" 

"HaUoo, bluebeUy!" 

"What was the matter with your battery, Tuesday 
night?" 

" You made it too hot. Your shots drove away the 
cannoneers, and they haven't stopped running yet. We 
infantry men had to come out and withdraw .the guns." 

"You infantrymen will run, too, one of these fin© 
mornings." 

" When are you coming over ?" 

" When we get ready to come." 

"What do you want ?" 

* ' Want Fredericksburg. ' ' 

"Don't you wish you may get it V 



304 How Army Correspondents Lived. [isei 

Here an officer came up and ordered onr men away. 

The army halted for some weeks in front of Fred- 
ericksburg. 

By tins time, War Correspondence was employing 
hundreds of pens. The Tribune had from five to eight 
men in the Army of the Potomac, and twelve west of 
the AUeghanies. My own local habitation was the 
head-quarters of Major-General 0. O. Howard, who 
afterward won wide reputation in Tennessee and Geor- 
gia, and who is an officer of great skill, bravery, and 
personal purity. 

My dispatches were usually prepared, and those of 
my associates sent to me, at night. Before dawn, a spe- 
cial messenger called at my tent for them, and bore them 
on horseback, or by railway and steamer, to Washing- 
ton, whence they were forwarded to New York by mail 
or telegraph. 

Correspondents usually lived at the head-quarters of 
some general officer, bearing their due proportion of mess 
expenditures ; but they were compelled to rely upon the 
bounty of quartermasters for forage for their horses, and 
transportation for their baggage. 

Having no legal and recognized positions in the army, 
they were sometimes liable to supercilious treatment from 
young members of staff. They were sure of politeness 
and consideration from generals ; yet, particularly in the 
regular army, there was a certain impression that they 
deserved Halleck's characterization of "unauthorized 
hangers-on." To encourage the best class of journalists 
to accompany the army, there should be a law distinctly 
authorizing representatives of the Press, who are engaged 
in no other pursuit, to accompany troops in the field, and 
purchase forage and provisions at the same rates as offi- 
cers. They should, of course, be held to a just responsi- 



1862.] I'd rather be Free. 305 

"bility not to pnlblisli information wMch. could benefit the 
enemy. 

I^ightly, around our great division camp-fire, negroes 
of all ages pored over their spelling-books with com- 
mendable thirst for learning. 

One boy, of fourteen, was considered peculiarly stu- 
pid, and had seen hard work, rough living, and no pay, 
during his twelve montbs' sojourn with the army, I 
asked him : "Did you work as hard for your old master 
as you do.here?" 

"Ko, sir." 

"Did he treat you kindly ?" 

"Yes, sir." 

" Were you as well clothed as now?" 

"Better, sir." 

"And had more comforts?" 

" Yes, sir ; always had a roof over me, and was never 
exposed to rain and cold." 

" Would you not have done better to stay at home ?" 

"K I had thought so, I should not have come away, 
sir." 

"Would you come again, knowing what hardships 
were before you ?" 

"Yes, sir. I'd rather be free !" 

He was not stupid enough to be devoid of human 
instinct ! 

In December occurred the battle of Fredericksburg. 
The enemy's position was very strong — almost impreg- 
nable. Our men were compelled to lay their pontoons 
across the river in a pitiless rain of bullets from the 
Rebel sharpshooters. But they did it witliout flinching. 
Our troops, rank, file, and officers, marched into the 
jaws of death with stubborn determination. 

We attacked in three columns ; but the original de- 

20 



306 The Battle of Fredericksburg. [1862. 

sign was that the main assault should be on our left, 
which was commanded by Gfeneral Franklin. A road 
which Franklin mshed to reach would enable him to 
come up in the rear of Fredericksburg, and compel the 
enemy to evacuate his strong works, or be cajDtured. 
Franklin was very late in starting. He penetrated once 
to this road, but did not know it, and again fell back. 
Thus the key to the position was lost. 

In the center, our troops were flung upon very strong 
works, and repulsed with terrible slaugliter. It proved 
a massacre rather than a battle. Our killed and wound- 
ed exceeded ten thousand. 

I was not present at the battle, but returned to the 
army two or three days after. Burnside deported him- 
self with rare fitness and magnanimity. As he spoke to 
me about the brave men who had fruitlessly fallen, there 
were tears in his eyes, and his voice broke with emotion. 
When I asked him if Franklin' s slowness was respon- 
sible for the slaughter, he replied : 

"No. I understand perfectly well that when the 
general commanding an army meets with disaster, he 
alone is responsible, and I will not attempt to shift that 
responsibility upon any one else. 'No one will ever 
know how near we came to a great victory. It almost 
seems to me now that I could have led my old Ninth 
Corps into those works." 

Indeed, Burnside had desired to do this, but was dis- 
suaded by his lieutenants. The Ninth Corps would have 
followed him anywhere ; but that would have been cer- 
tain death. 

Burnside was, at least, great in his earnestness, his mor- 
al courage, and perfect integrity. The battle was better 
than squandering precious lives in fevers and dysentery 
during months of inaction. Better a soldier' s death on 



1863.] Curious Blunder of the Telegraph. 307 

the enemy' s guns than a nameless grave in the swamps 
of the Chickahominy or the trenches "before Corinth. 

Ordered to move, Burnside olbeyed without quib- 
Ibling or hesitating, and flung his army upon the Rebels. 
The result was defeat ; but that policy proved our sal- 
vation at last ; by that sign we conquered. 

Every private soldier knew that the battle of Fred- 
ericksburg was a costly and bloody mistake, and yet I 
tliink on the day or the week following it, the soldiers 
would have gone into battle just as cheerfully and stur- 
dily as before. The more I saw of the Army of the 
Potomac, the more I wondered at its invincible spirit, 
which no disasters seemed able to destroy. 

In January, among the lookers-on in Virginia, was 
the Hon. Henry J. Raymond, of Tlie Times. He had a 
brother in the service, and one day he received this tele- 
gram : — 

'* Your brother's corpse is at Belle Plain." 

Hastening to the army as fast as steam could carry him, 
to perform the last sad offices of affection, he found his 
relative not only living, but in vigorous health. Through 
the eccentricities of the telegraph, the word corps had 
been changed into corpse. 

On the 22d of January, Burnside attempted another 
advance, designing to cross the Rappahannock in three 
columns. The weather for a long time had been fine, 
but, a few hours after the army started, the heavens 
opened, and converted the Virginia roads into almost 
fathomless mire. Advance seemed out of the question, 
and in two days the troops came back to camp. The 
Rebels understood the cause, and prepared an enormous 
sign, which they erected on their side of the river, in full 



308 The Batteries at Fredericksburg. isgs.] 

view of our pickets, Ibearing the inscription, " Stuck ijs" 

THE MUD !" 

AjtMT OF Potomac, near Falmouth, Va., ) 
Monday, Nov. 24. ) 

Still on the north bank of the Rappahannock ! Upon 
the high bluffs, along a line of three miles, twenty -four 
of our guns point threatenijigly toward the enemy. In 
the ravines behind them a hundred more wait, ready to 
be wheeled up and placed in position. 

Upon the hills south of the river, distant from them 
a thousand to five thousand yards, Rebel guns con- 
front them. Some peer blackly through hastily-built 
earthworks ; some are just visible over the crests of 
sharp ridges ; some almost hidden by great piles of 
brush. Already we count eighteen ; the cannonading 
will unmask many more. 

"Ah, what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary, 
When the Death-angel touches these swift keys ! 
What loud lament and dismal miserere 
Will mingle with their awful symphonies!" 

In front of our right batteries, but far below and hid- 
den from them, the antique, narrow, half-ruined village 
of Falmouth hugs the river. In front of the Rebel bat- 
teries, in full view of both sides, the broad, well-to-do 
town of Fredericksburg, with its great factories, tall 
spires, and brick buildings, is a tempting target for our 
guns. The river which flows between (though Freder- 
icksburg is half a mile below Falmouth), is now so nar- 
row, that a lad can throw a stone across. 

Behind our batteries and their protecting hills rests 
the infantry of the G-rand Division. General Couch's 
corps occupies a crescent-shaped valley — a symmetric 
natural amphitheater. It is all aglow nightly with a 



1863.] ' A Disappointed Yirginian. 309 

thousand camp-fires ; and, from the proscenium-hill of 
General Howard' s head-quarters, forms a picture mock- 
ing all earthly canvas. Behind the Rebel batteries, in 
the dense forest, their infantry occupies a line five miles 
long. By night we just detect the glimmer of their 
fires ; "by day we see the tall, slender columns of smoke 
curling up from their camps. 

All the citizens ask to have guards placed over their 
houses; "but very few obtain them. "I will give no 
man a guard," replied General Howard to one of these 
applicants, "until he is willing to lose as much as I 
have lost, in defending the Government." The Virgin- 
ian cast one long, lingering look at the General's loose, 
empty coat-sleeve (he lost his right arm while leading 
his brigade at Fair Oaks), and went away, the picture of 
despair. 

Abmy of Potomac, Sunday, Dec. 21. 

The general tone of the army is good; far better 
than could be expected. There is regret for our failure, 
sympathy for our wounded, mourning for our honored 
dead ; but I find little discouragement and no demoral- 
ization. 

This is largely owing to the splendid conduct of all 
our troops. The men are hopeful because there are few 
of the usual jealousies and heart-burnings. 'No one is 
able to say, "K this division had not broken," or "if 
that regiment had done its duty, we might have won." 
The concurrence of testimony is universal, that our men 
in every division did better than they ever did before, 
and made good their claim to being the best troops in 
the world. We have had victories without merit, but 
this was a defeat without dishonor. 

In many respects — ^in all respects but the failure of 



310 Honor to the Brave and Bold. [isea 

its vital olbject^ — the battle of Fredericksburg was the 
finest thing of the war. Laying the bridge, pushing the 
army across, after the defeat withdrawing it success- 
fully — all were splendidly done, and redound alike to the 
skill of the general and the heroism of the troops. 

And those men and officers of the Seventh Michigan, 
the ISTineteenth and Twentieth Massachusetts, and the 
Eighty-ninth New York, who eagerly crossed the river 
in open boats, in the teeth of that pitiless rain of bul- 
lets, and dislodged the sharpshooters who were holding 
our whole army at bay — what shall we say of them? 
Let the name of every man of them be secured now, 
and preserved in a roll of honor ; let Congress see to it 
that, by medal or ribbon to each, the Republic gives 
token of gratitude to all who do such royal deeds in its 
defense. To the living, at least, we can be just. The 
fallen, who were left by hundreds in line of battle, 
"dead on the field of honor," we cannot reward ; but 
He who permits no sparrow to fall to the ground un- 
heeded, will see to it that no drop of their precious 
blood has been shed in vain. 



1858.] Reminiscences op Abraham Lincoln. 311 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

He hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
So clear in his great office, that his virtues 
"Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against 
The deep damnation of his taking off. 

Macbeth. 

The assassination of President Lincoln, while these 
chapters are in press, attaches a sad interest to every 
thing connected with his memory. 

During the great canvass for the United States Senate, 
between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, the right of Con- 
gress to exclude Slavery from the Territories was the 
chief point in dispute, Kansas was the only region to 
which it had any practical application; and we, who 
were residing there, read the debates with peculiar in- 
terest. 

ITo such war of intellects, on the rostrum, was ever 
witnessed in America. Entirely without general culture, 
more ignorant of books than any other public man of his 
day, Douglas was christened "the Little Giant" by the 
unerring popular instinct. He who, without the learning 
of the schools, and without preparation, could cope with 
Webster, Seward, and Sumner, surely deserved that ap- 
pellation. He despised study. Rising after one of Mr. 
Sumner' s most scholarly and elaborate speeches, he said : 
" Mr. President, this is very elegant and able, but we all 
know perfectly well that the Massachusetts Senator has 
been rehearsing it every night for a month, before a look- 
ing-glass, with a negro holding a candle !" 

Douglas was, beyond all cotemporaries, a man of the 



312 His Great Canvass with Douglas. [i858. 

people. Lincoln, too, was distinctively of the masses ; 
but he represented their sober, s^Bcond thought, their 
higher aspirations, their "better possibilities. Douglas 
embodied their average impulses, both good and bad. 
Upon the stump, his Huencj, his hard common sense, 
and his wonderful voice, which could thunder like the 
cataract, or whisper with the breeze, enabled him to 
sway them at his will. 

Hitherto invincible at home, he now found a foeman 
worthy of his steel. All over the country people began 
to ask about this "Honest Abe Lincoln," whose inex- 
haustible anecdotes were so droll, yet so exactly to the 
point ; whose logic was so irresistible ; whose modesty, 
fairness, and personal integrity, won golden opinions from 
his political enemies ; who, without "trimming," enjoyed 
the support of the many -headed Opposition in Hlinois, 
from the Abolition Owen Lovejoys of the northern coun- 
ties, down to the "conservative" old Whigs of the 
Egyptian districts, who still believed in the divinity of 
Slavery. 

Those who did not witness it vrill never comprehend 
the universal and intense horror at every thing looking 
toward "negro equality" which then prevailed in south- 
ern Hlinois. Republican politicians succumbed to it. 
In their journals and platforms they sometimes said 
distinctly: "We care nothing for the negro. We ad- 
vocate his exclusion from our State. We oppose Slave- 
ry in the Territories only because it is a curse to the 
white man." Mr. Lincoln never descended to this 
level. In his plain, moderate, conciliatory way, he 
would urge upon his simple auditors that this matter 
had a Right and a Wrong — that the great Declaration 
of ^heir fathers meant something. And — always his 
strong point — he would put this so clearly to the com- 



1859.] His Visit to Kansas. 313 

mon appreliension, and so touch tlie people's moral 
sense, that his opponents found their old cries of "Abo- 
litionist" and "ISTegro- worshiper" hollow and powerless. 

His defeat, by a very slight majority, proved victory 
in disguise. The debates gave him a National reputa- 
tion. Republican executive committees in other States 
issued verbatim reports of the speeches of both Douglas 
and Lincoln, bound up together in the order of their 
delivery. They printed them just as they stood, with- 
out one word of comment, as the most convincing plea 
for their cause. Rarely, if ever, has any man received 
so high a compliment as was thus paid to Mr. Lincoln. 

In Kansas his stories began to stick like chestnut-burrs 
in the popular ear — to pass from mouth to mouth, and 
from cabin to cabin. The young lawyers, physicians, 
and other politicians who swarm in the new country, 
began to quote from his arguments in their public 
speeches, and to regard him as the special champion of 
their political faith. 

Late in the Autumn of 1859 he visited the Territory 
for the first and last time. With Marcus J. Parrott, 
Delegate in Congress, A. Carter Wilder, afterward Rep- 
resentative, and Henry Yillard, a Journalist, I went to 
Troy, in Doniphan County, to hear him. Li the imagina- 
tive language of the frontier, Troy was a "town" — pos- 
sibly a city. But, save a shabby frame court-house, a 
tavern, and a few shanties, its urban glories were visible 
only to the eye of faith. It was intensely cold. The 
sweeping prairie wind rocked the crazy buildings, and 
cut the faces of travelers like a knife. Mr. Wilder froze 
his hand during our ride, and Mr. Lincoln' s party arrived 
wrapped in buflfalo-robes. 

"Not more than forty people assembled in that little, 
bare-waUed court-house. There was none of the mag- 



314 His Manner of Public Speaking. [issg. 

netism of a multitude to inspire the long, angular, un- 
gainly orator, who rose up behind a rough table. With 
little gesticulation, and that little ungraceful, he began, 
not to declaim, but to talk. In a conversational tone, he 
argued the question of Slavery in the Territories, in the 
language of an average Ohio or ITew York farmer. I 
thought, "If the Illinoisans consider this a great man, 
their ideas must be very peculiar." 

But in ten or fifteen minutes I was unconsciously and 
irresistibly drawn by the clearness and closeness of his 
argument. Link after link it was forged and welded 
like a blacksmith' s chain. He made few assertions, but 
merely asked questions: "Is not this true? If you 
admit that fact, is not this induction correct?" Give 
him his premises, and his conclusions were inevitable as 
death. 

His fairness and candor were very noticeable. He 
ridiculed nothing, burlesqued nothing, misrepresented 
nothing. So far from distorting the views held by Mr. 
Douglas and his adherents, he stated them with more 
strength probably than any one of their advocates could 
have done. Then, very modestly and courteously, he 
inquired into their soundness. He was too kind for bit- 
terness, and too great for vituperation. 

His anecdotes, of course, were felicitous and illustra- 
tive. He delineated the tortuous windings of the De- 
mocracy upon the Slavery question, from Thomas Jef- 
ferson down to Franklin Pierce. AYhenever he heard a 
man avow his determination to adhere unswervingly to 
the principles of the Democratic party, it reminded Mm, 
he said, of a "little incident" in Illinois. A lad, plow- 
ing upon the prairie, asked his father in what direction 
he should strike a new furrow. The parent replied, 
*' Steer for that yoke of oxen standing at the further end 



1859.] High Praise from an Opponent. 315 

of the field." The father went away, and the lad 
obeyed. But just as he started, the oxen started also. 
He kept steering for them ; and they continued to walk. 
He followed them entirely around the field, and came 
back to the starting-point, having furrowed a circle in- 
stead of a line ! 

The address lasted for an hour and three-quarters. 
IN'either rhetorical, graceful, nor eloquent, it was still 
very fascinating. The people of the frontier believe 
profoundly in fau* play, and in hearing both sides. So 
they now called for an aged ex-Kentuckian, who was 
the heaviest slaveholder in the Territory. Eesponding, 
he thus prefaced his remarks : — ■ 

"I have heard, during my life, all the ablest public 
speakers — all the eminent statesmen of the past and the 
present generation. And while I dissent utterly from the 
doctrines of this address, and shall endeavor to refute 
some of them, candor compels me to say that it is the 
most able and the most logical speech I ever listened to." 

I have alluded in earlier pages, to remarks touching 
the reports that Mr. Lincoln would be assassinated, 
which I heard in the South, on the day of his first in- 
auguration. Afterward, in my presence, several persons 
of the wealthy, slaveholding class, alluded to the sub- 
ject, some having laid wagers upon the event. I heard 
but one man condemn the proposed assassination, and he 
was a Unionist. Again and again, leading journals, 
which were called reputable, asked : "Is there no 
Brutus to rid the world of this tyrant ?" Rewards were 
openly proposed for the President's head. If Mr. 
Lincoln had then been murdered in Baltimore, every 
thorough Secession journal in the South would have ex- 
pressed its approval, directly or indirectly. Of course, 
I do not believe that the masses, or all Secessionists, 



316 A Deed without a Name. [i865. 

would have desired sucli a stain npon the American 
name ; hut even then, as afterward, when they murdered 
our captured soldiers, and starved, froze, and shot our 
prisoners, the men who led and controlled the Rehels 
appeared deaf to humanity and to decency. Charity 
would fain call them insane ; but there was too much 
method in their madness. 

Their last, great crime of all was, perhaps, needed for 
an eternal monument of the influence of Slavery. It was 
fitting that they who murdered Lovejoy, who crimsoned 
the rohes of young Kansas, who aimed their gigantic 
Treason at the heart of the Republic, before the curtain 
went down, should crown their infamy by this deed with- 
out a name. It was fitting that they should seek the lives 
of President Lincoln, General Grant, and Secretary Sew- 
ard, the three ofiicers most conspicuous of all for their 
mildness and clemency. It was fitting they should as- 
sassinate a Chief Magistrate, so conscientious, that his 
heavy responsibility weighed him down like a mill- 
stone ; so pure, that partisan rancor found no stain upon 
the hem of his garment ; so gentle, that e'en his failings 
leaned to virtue' s side ; so merciful, that he stood like 
an averting angel between them and the Nation's ven- 
geance. 

The Rebel newspapers represented him — a man who 
used neither spirits nor tobacco — as in a state of constant 
intoxication. They ransacked the language for epithets. 
Their chief hatred was called out by his origin. He 
illustrated the Democratic Idea, which was inconceivably 
repugnant to them. That a man who sprang from the 
, people, worked with his hands, actually split rails iii 
boyhood, should rise to the head of a Government which 
included Southern gentlemen, was bitter beyond d©» 
scription I 



1862.] Sherman's Quaerel with the Press. 317 

On tlie 28t]i of Decemlber, 1862, Slierman fonglit tlie 
Ibattle of Chickasaw Bayou, one of onr first fruitless at- 
tempts to capture Yicksburg. Grant designed to co- 
operate by an attack from the rear, but his long supply- 
line extended to Columbus, Kentucky, though he might , 
have established a nearer base at Memphis. Yan Dorn 
cut his communications at Holly Springs, Mississippi, 
and Grant was compelled to fall back. 

Sherman's attack proved a serious disaster. Our 
forces were flung upon an almost impregnable bluflf, 
where we lost about two thousand five hundred men, 
and were then compelled to retreat. 

In the old quarrel between Sherman and the Press, 
as usual, there was blame upon both sides. Some of 
the correspondents had treated him unjustly ; and he 
had not learned the quiet patience and faith in the future 
which Grant exhibited under similar circumstances. At 
times he manifested much irritation and morbid sensi- 
tiveness. "^ 

A well-known correspondent, Mr. Thomas W. Knox, 
was present at the battle, and placed his report of it, 
duly sealed, and addressed to a private citizen, in the 
military mail at Sherman's head-quarters. One "Colo- 
nel" A. H. Marldand, of Kentucky, United States Postal 
Agent, on mere surmise about its contents, took the let- 
ter from the mail and permitted it to be opened. He in- 
sisted afterward that he did this by Sherman's express 
command. Sherman denied giving any such order, but 
said he was satisfied with Markland's course. 

Markland should have been arrested for robbing 
the Government mails, which he was sworn to protect. 
There was no reasonable pretext for asserting that the 
letter would give information to the enemy ; therefore it 
did not imperil the public interest. If General Sherman 



318 An Army Correspondent CouRT-MAKTiALED. [ises. 

deemed it unjust to himself individually, lie had Ms 
remedy, like any other citizen or soldier, in the courts of 
the country and the justice of the people. 

The purloined dispatch was left for four or five days 
lying about Sherman' s head-quarters, open to the inspec- 
tion of officers. Finally, upon Knox's written request, 
it was returned to him, though a map which it contained 
was kept — as he rather pungently suggested, probably 
, for the information of the military authorities ! 

Knox' s letter had treated the generalship of the battle 
very tenderly. But after this proceeding he immedi- 
ately forwarded a second account, which expressed his 
views on the subject in very plain English. Its return 
in print caused great excitement at head-quarters. Knox 
was arrested, and tried before a military tribunal on 
these charges : — 

I. Giving information to the enemy. 

II. Being a spy. 

III. Violating the fifty-seventh Article of War, which 
forbids the writing of letters for publication from any 
United States army without submittmg them to the com- 
manding general for approval. 

The court-martial sat for fifteen days. It acquitted 
Knox upon the first and second charges. Of course, he 
was found guilty of the third. After some hesitation be- 
tween sentencing him to receive a written censure, or to 
leave Grant' s department, the latter was decided upon, 
and he was banished fron the army lines. 

When information of this proceeding reached Wash- 
ington, the members of the press at once united in a me- 
morial to the President, asking him to set aside the sen- 
tence, inasmuch as the violated Article of War was al- 
together obsolete, and the practice of sending news- 
paper letters, without any official scrutiny, had been 



1863.] A Visit to President Lincoln. 319 

uniyersal, with the full sanction of the Grovemment, from 
the outset of the Rebellion. It was further represented 
that Mr. Knox was thoroughly loyal, and the most 
scrupulously careful of all the army correspondents to 
write nothing which, by any possibility, could give in- 
formation to the enemy. Colonel John W. Forney 
headed the memorial, and all the journalists in Wash- 
ington signed it. 

One evening, with Mr. James M. Winchell, of The 
New TotTc Times, and Mr. H. P. Bennett, Congressional 
Delegate from Colorado, I called upon the President to 
present the paper. 

After General Sigel and Representative John B. 
Steele had left, he chanced to be quite at liberty. Upon 
my introduction, he remarked : — 

"Oh, yes, I remember you perfectly well : you were 
out on the prairies with me on that winter day when we 
almost froze to death ; you were then correspondent of 
The Boston Journal. That German from Leavenworth 
was also with us — what was his name ?" 

" Hatterscheit ?" I suggested. "Yes, Hatterscheit ! 
By- the- way" (motioning us to seats, and settling down 
into his chair, with one leg thrown over the arm), ' ' that 
reminds me of a little story, which Hatterscheit told me 
during the trip. He bought a pony of an Indian, who 
could not speak much English, but who, when the bar- 
gain was completed, said : ' Oats — no ! Hay — no ! Corn 
' — no ! Cottonwood — ^yes ! very much !' Hatterscheit 
thought this was mere drunken maundering ; but a few 
nights after, he tied his horse in a stable built of cotton- 
wood logs, fed him with hay and corn, and went quietly 
to bed. The next morning he found the grain and fod- 
der untouched, but the barn was quite empty, with a 
great hole on one side, which the pony had gnawed his 



320 Two "Little Stories." [ises. 

■way throiigli ! ■ Then lie comprelieiided the old Indian's 
fragmentary English." 

This suggested another reminiscence of the same 
Western trip. Somewhere in Nebraska the party came 
to a little creek, the Indian name of which signified 
weeping water. Mr. Lincoln remarked, with a good deal 
of aptness, that, as laughing water, according to Long- 
fellow, was " Minne-haha," the name of this rivulet 
should evidently "be " Minne-boohoo." 

These inevitable preliminaries ended, we presented 
the memorial asking the President to interpose in behalf 
of Mr. Knox. He promptly answered he would do so if 
Grant coincided. We reminded him that this was im- 
probable, as Sherman and Grant were close personal 
friends. After a moment's hesitancy he replied, with 
courtesy, but with emphasis : — 

" I should be glad to serve you or Mr. Knox, or any 
other loyal journalist. But, just at present, our gene- 
rals in the field are more important to the country than 
any of the rest of us, or all the rest of us. It is my fixed 
determination to do nothing whatever which can possi- 
bly embarrass any one of them. Therefore, I will do 
cheerfully what I have said, but it is all I can do." 

There was too much irresistible good sense in this to 
permit any further discussion. The President took up 
his pen and wrote, reflecting a moment from time to 
time, the following : — 

EsEcxTTiTB Mansion, "Washington, March 20, 1863. 
Whom it may concern: 

Whereas^ It appears to my satisfaction that Thomas W. Knox, a cor- 
respondent of The Is'ew YorTc Herald^ has been, by the sentence of a 
court-martial, excluded from the military department under command of 
Major-General Grant, and also that General Thayer, president of the 
court-martial which rendered the sentence, and Major-General McOler- 
nand, in command of a corps of the department, and many other respect- 



' AAA 






/TKju^v-C- 



1863.] Mr. Lincoln's Familiar Conversation. 323 

able persons, are of the opinion that Mr. Knox's offense was technical, 
rather than wilfully wrong, and that the sentence should be revoked; 
Now, therefore, said sentence is hereby so far revoked as to allow Mr. 
Knox to return to General Grant's head-quarters, and to remain if Gen- 
eral Grant shall give his express assent, and to again leave the depart- 
ment, if General Grant shall refuse such assent. 

A. Lincoln. 

Reading it over carefully, he handed it to me, and 
gave a little sigh of relief. General conversation 
ensued. Despondent and "weighed down with his load 
of care, he sought relief in frank speaking. He said, 
with great earnestness : " God knows that I want to do 
what is wise and right, hut sometimes it is very difficult 
to determine." 

He conversed freely of military affairs, hut suddenly 
remarked : "I am talking again ! Of course, you will 
remember that I speak to you only as friends ; that none 
of this must he put in print." 

Touching an attack upon Charleston which had long 
heen contemplated, he said that Du Pont had promised, 
some weeks before, if certain supplies were furnished, to 
make the assault upon a given day. Tlie supplies were 
promptly forwarded ; the day came and went without 
any intelligence. Some time after, he sent an officer 
to Washington, asking for three more iron-clads and a 
large quantity of deck-plating as indispensable to the 
preparations. 

"I told the officer to say to Commodore Du Pont," 
observed Mr. Lincoln, "that I fear he does not appre-' 
ciate at all the value of time." 

The Army of the Potomac was next spoken of. The 
great Fredericksburg disaster was recent, and the public 
heart was heavy. In regard to General McClellan, the 
President spoke with discriminating justice : — 

"I do not, as some do, regard McClellan either as a 



324 Opinions about McClellan and Yicksburg. [ises. 

traitor or an officer without capacity. He sometimes has 
Ibad counselors, but lie is loyal, and he has some fine 
military qualities. I adhered to him after nearly all my 
Constitutional advisers lost faith in him. But do you 
want to know when I gave him up ? It was after the 
"battle of Antietam. The Blue Ridge was then between 
our army and Lee's. We enjoyed the great advantage 
over them which they usually had over us : we had the 
short line, and they the long one, to the Rebel Capital. 
I directed McClellan peremptorily to move on Rich- 
mond. It was eleven days before he crossed his first 
man over the Potomac ; it was eleven days after that 
before he crossed the last man. Thus he was twenty- 
two days in passing the river at a much easier and more 
practicable ford than tiiat where Lee crossed his entire 
army between dark one n^ht and daylight the next 
morning. That was the last grain of sand which broke 
the camel' s back. I relieved McClellan at once. As for 
Hooker, I have told Mm forty times that I fear he may 
err j ust as much one way as McClellan does the other — 
may be as over-daring as McClellan is over-cautious." 

We inquired about the progress of the Vicksburg 
campaign. Our armies were on a long expedition up the 
Yazoo River, designing, by digging canals and threading 
bayous, to get in the rear of the city and cut off its sup- 
plies. Mr. Lincoln said : — 

" Of course, men who are in command and on the 
spot, know a great deal more than I do. But immedi- 
ately in front of Yicksburg, where the river is a mile 
wide, the Rebels plant batteries, which absolutely stop 
our entire fleets. Therefore it does seem to me that upon 
narrow streams like the Yazoo, Yallabusha, and Talla- 
hatchie, not wide enough for a long boat to turn around 
in, if any of our steamers which go there ever come 



1863.] Our Best Contribution to History. 325 

"back, there must Ibe some mistake albout it. If the 
enemy permits them to survive, it must be either through 
lack of enterprise or lack of sense." 

A few months later, Mr. Lincoln was able to announce 
to the nation : "The Father of Waters again flows un- 
vexed to the sea." 

Our interview left no grotesque recollections of the 
President's lounging, his huge hands and feet, great 
mouth, or angular features. We remembered rather the 
ineffable tenderness which shone through his gentle eyes, 
his childlike ingenuousness, his utter integrity, and his 
absorbing love of country. 

Ignorant of etiquette and conventionalities, without 
the graces of form or of manner, his great reluctance to 
give pain, his beautiful regard for the feelings of others, 
made him 

" Worthy to bear without reproach. 
The grand old name of Gentleman." 

Strong without symmetry, humorous without levity, 
religious without cant — tender, merciful, forgiving, a pro- 
found believer in Divine love, an earnest worker for 
human brotherhood — Abraham Lincoln was perhaps the 
best contribution which America has made to History. 

His origin among humble laborers, his native judg- 
ment, better than the wisdom of the schools, his perfect 
integrity, his very ruggedness and angularities, made 
him fit representative of the young Nation which loved 
and honored him. 

No more shall sound above our tumultuous rejoicing 
his wise caution, "Let us be very sober." No more 
shall breathe through the passions of the hour his tender 
pleading that judgment may be tempered with mercy. 
His work is done. Nothing could have assured and en- 
larged his posthumous fame like this tragic ending. He 



326 A Noble Life and Happy Death. [ises. 

goes to a place in History wliere his peers will be very 
few. The poor wretch who struck the blow has gone to 
be judged by infinite Justice, and also by infinite Mercy. 
So have many others indirectly responsible for the mur- 
der, and directly responsible for the war. Let us remem- 
ber them in no Pharisaic spirit, thanking God that we 
are not as other men — but as warnings of what a race 
with many generous and manly traits may become by 
being guilty of injustice and oppression. 

Some of the President' s last expressions were words 
of mercy for his enemies. A few hours before his death, 
in a long interview with his trusted and honored friend 
Schuyler Colfax, he stated that he wished to give the 
Rebel leaders an opportunity to leave the country and 
escape the vengeance which seemed to await them here. 

America is never likely to feel again the profound, 
universal grief which followed the death of Abraham 
Lincoln. Even the streets of her great Metropolis "for- 
got to roar." Hung were the heavens in black. For 
miles, every house was draped in mourning. The least 
feeling was manifested by that sham aristocracy, which 
had the least sympathy with the Union cause and with 
the Democratic Idea. The deepest was displayed by the 
"plain people" and the poor. 

What death is happier than tlius to be wept by the 
lowly and oppressed, as a friend and protector ! AVhat 
life is nobler than thus to be filled, in his own golden 
words, "with charity for all, with malice toward 
none I" 



1863.] KeMINISCENCES OF GENERAL SUMNER. 327 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



-It is held 



That valor is the chiefest virtue and 
Most dignifies the haver. If it be, 
The man I speak of cannot in the world 
Be singly counterpoised. 

COEIOLANTTS. 

BuRHSTG the month of March, Major-General Edwin 
y. Sumner was in Washington, apparently in vigorous 
health. He had just been appointed to the command of 
the Department of the Missouri. One Saturday evening, 
having received his final orders, he 'was about leaving 
for his home in Syracuse, New York, where he designed 
spending a few days before starting for St. Louis. 

I went into his room to bid him adieu. Allusion 
was made to the allegations of speculation against 
General Curtis, his predecessor in the West. "I trust," 
said he, "they are untrue. ISTo general has a right to 
make one dollar out of his official position, beyond the 
salary which his Government pays him." He talked 
somewhat in detail of the future, remarking, ' ' For the 
present, I shall remain in St. Louis ; but whenever there 
is a prospect of meeting the enemy, I shall take the field, 
and lead my troops in person. Some men can fight 
battles over a telegraph-wire, but you know I have no 
talent in that direction." 

With his friendly grasp of the hand, and his kindly 
smile, he started for home. It proved to him Home 
indeed. A week later the country was startled by intel- 
ligence of his sudden death. He, who for forty -eight 



328 His Conduct in Kansas. [isei 

years had iDrayed the hardships of campaigning and the 
perils of battle, until he seemed to have a charmed life, 
■was abruptly cut down by disease under his own roof, 
surrounded by those he loved. 

" The breast that trampling Death could spare, j 

His noiseless shafts assail.'' 

For almost half a century, Sumner had belonged to 
the Army of the United States ; but he steadfastly 
refused to be put on the retired list. Entering the ser- 
vice from civil life, he was free from professional tradi- 
tions and narrowness. Senator Wade once asked him, 
"How long were you at the Military Academy 1" He 
replied, "I was never there in my life." 

The bluff Ohioan sprang up and shook him fervidly 
by the hand, exclaiming, "Thank Grod for one general 
of the regular Army, who was never at West Point !" 

During the early Kansas troubles, Sumner, then a 
colonel, was stationed in the Territory with his regiment 
of dragoons. Unscrupulous as were the Administrations 
of Pierce and Buchanan in their efforts to force Slavery 
upon Kansas, embittered as were the people against 
the troops, — generally mere tools of Missouri ruffians — 
their feelings toward Sumner were kindly and grateful. 
They knew he was a just man, who would not willingly 
harass or oppress them, and who sympathized with them 
in their fiery trial. 

From the outbreak of the Slaveholders' Pebellion 
his name was one of the brightest in that noble but 
unfortunate army which illustrated Northern discipline 
and valor on so many bloody fields, but had never yet 
gathered the fruits of victory. He was always in the 
deadliest of the fighting. He had the true soldierly 
temperament. He snuffed the battle afar off. He felt 



1863.] A Thrilling Scene in Battle. 329 

** the rapture of tlie strife," and went into it with Iboyish 
enthusiasm. 

In exposing himself, he was Imprudence personified. 
It was the clironic wonder of his friends that he ever 
came out of battle alive. At last they began to believe, 
with him, that he was invincible. He would receive, 
bullets in his hat, coat, boots, saddle, horse, and some- 
times have his person scratched, but without serious 
injury. His soldiers related, with great relish, that in 
the Mexican War a ball which struck him square in the 
forehead fell flattened to the ground without breaking 
the skin, as the bullet glances from the forehead of the 
buffalo. This anecdote won for him the soubriquet of 
*' Old Buffalo." 

At Fair Oaks, his troops were trembling under a piti- 
less storm of bullets, when he galloped up and down 
the advance line, more exposed than any private in the 
ranks. 

"What regiment is this I" he asked. 

"The Fifteenth Massachusetts," replied a hundred 
voices. 

"I, too, am from Massachusetts; three cheers for 
our old Bay State !" And swinging his hat, the general 
led off, and every soldier joined in three thundering 
cheers. The enemy looked on in wonder at the strange 
episode, but was driven back by the fierce charge which 
followed. 

This was no unusual scene. Wlienever the guns 
began to pound, his mild eye would fiash with fire. 
He would remove his artificial teeth, which became 
troublesome during the excitement of battle, and place 
them carefully in his pocket ; raise his spectacles from 
his eyes and rest them upon the forehead, that he might 
see clearly objects at a distance ; give his orders to sub- 



330 How Sumner Fought. [issi 

ordinates, and then gallop headlong into the thick of 
the fight. 

Hundreds of soldiers were familiar with the erect form, 
the snowy, streaming hair, and the frank face of that 
wonderful old man who, on the perilous edge of hattle, 
while they were falling like grass "before the mower, 
would dash through the fire and smoke, shouting : — 

"Steady, men, steady! Don't he excited. When 
you have been soldiers as long as I, you will learn that 
this is nothing. Stand firm and do your duty !" 

TsTever seeking a dramatic efiect, he sometimes dis- 
played quiet heroism worthy of history's l^rightest 
pages. Once, quite unconsciously reproducing a historic 
scene, he repeated, almost word for word, the address 
of the great Frederick to his officers, hefore the battle of 
Leuthen. It was on the bloody field of Fair Oaks, at 
the end of the second day. He commanded the forces 
which had crossed the swollen stream. But before the 
other troops came up, the bridges were swept away. 
The army was then cut in twain ; and Sumner, with his 
three shattered corps, was left to the mercy of the enemy's 
entire force. 

On that Sunday night, after making his dispositions 
to receive an attack, he sent for General Sedgwick, his 
special friend and a most trusty soldier : — 

"Sedgwick, you perceive the situation. The enemy 
will doubtless open upon us at daylight. Re-enforce- 
ments are impossible ; he can overwhelm and destroy 
us. But the fcountpy cannot afford to have us defeated. 
There is just one thing for us to do ; we must stand 
here and die like men! Impress it upon your oflicers 
that we must do this to the last man — to the last man ! 
We may not meet again ; good-by, Sedgwick." 

The two grim soldiers shook hands, and parted. 



1862.] Ordered Back by McClellan. 331 

Morning came, Ibut the enemy, failing to discover our 
perilous condition, did not renew the attack ; new bridges 
were built, and the sacrifice was averted. But Sumner 
was the man to cany out his resolution to the letter. 

Afterward, he retained possession of a house on our 
old line of battle ; and his head-quarter tents were 
brought forward and pitched. They were within range 
of a Rebel battery, which awoke the general and hia 
staff every morning, by dropping shot and shell all 
about them for two or three hours. Sumner implored 
permission to capture or drive away the hostile battery, 
but was refused, on the ground that it might bring on a 
general engagement. He chafed and stormed : "It is the 
most disgraceful thing of my life," he said, "that this 
should be permitted." But McClellan was inexorable. 
Sumner was directed to remove his head-quarters to a 
safer position. He persisted in remaining for fourteen 
days, and at last only withdrew upon a second peremp- 
tory order. 

The experience of that fortnight exhibited the ever- 
recurring miracle of war — that so much iron and lead 
may fly about men' s ears without harming them. Dur- 
ing the whole bombardment only two persons were in- 
jured. A surgeon was slightly wounded in the head by 
a piece of shell which flew into his tent ; and a private, 
while lying behind a log for protection, was instantly 
killed by a shot which tore a splinter from the wood, 
fracturing his skull ; but not another man received even 
a scratch. 

After Antietam, McClellan' s ever-swift apologists as- 
serted that his corps commanders all protested against re- 
newing the attack upon the second morning. I asked 
Greneral Sumner if it were true. He replied, with em- 
phasis : — 



332 Love for His Old Comrades. [ises. 

"!N'o, sir ! My advice Tvas not asked, and I did not 
volunteer it. But I was certainly in favor of renew- 
ing the attack. Much as my troops had suffered, they 
were good for another day's fighting, especially when 
the enemy had that river in his rear, and a defeat would 
have ruined him forever." 

At Fredericksburg, hy the express order of Burn- 
side, Sumner did not cross the river during the fighting. 
The precaution saved his life. Had he ridden out on that 
fiery front, he had never returned to tell what he saw. 
But he chafed sadly under the restriction. As the sun 
went down on that day of glorious but fruitless en- 
deavor, he paced to and fro in front of the Lacy House, 
with one arm thrown around the neck of his son, his face 
haggard with sorrow and anxiety, and his eyes straining 
eagerly for the arrival of each successive messenger. 

He was a man of high but patriotic ambition. Once, 
hearing General Howard remark that he did not aspire 
to the command of a corps, he exclaimed, " General you 
surprise me. /would command the world, if I could !" 

He was called arbitrary, but had great love for his 
soldiers, especially for old companions in arms. A K'ew 
York colonel told me a laughable story of applying to 
him for a ten days' furlough, when the rule against them 
was imperative. Sumner peremptorily refused it. But 
the officer sat down beside him, and began to talk about 
the Peninsular campaign — the battles in which he had 
done his duty, immediately under Sumner' s eye ; and it 
was not many minutes before the general granted his pe- 
tition. "If he had only waited," said the narrator, 
" until I recalled to his memory some scenes at Antietam, 
I am sure he would have given me twenty days instead 
of ten !" 

His intercourse with women and children was charac- 



1863.] Traveling Through the Northwest. 333 

terized by peculiar chivalry and gentleness. He revived 
the old ideal of the soldier — terrible in battle, but with 
an open and generous heart. 

To his youngest son — a captain upon his staff — he 
was bound by unusual affection. "Sammy" was his 
constant companion; in private he leaned upon him,, 
caressed him, and consulted him about the most trivial 
matters. It was a touching bond which united the gray, 
war-worn veteran to the child of his old age. 

We have had greater captains than Sumner ; but no 
better soldiers, no braver patriots. The words which 
trembled upon his dying lips — "May God bless my 
country, the United States of America" — were the key- 
note to his life. Green be the turf above him ! 

LouiSTiLLE, Kentucky, April 5, 1863. 

For the last week I have been traveling through 
the States of the Northwest. The tone of the people on 
the war was never better. Now that the question has 
become simply one of endurance, their Northern blood 
tells. "This is hard pounding, gentlemen," said Wel- 
lington at Waterloo ; " but we will see who can pound 
the longer." So, in spite of the Copperheads — "merely 
the dust and chaff on God's thrashing-floor" — the over- 
whelming sentiment of the people is to fight it out to the 
last man and the last dollar. 

You have been wont to say : " The West can be de- 
pended on for the war. She will never give up her great 
outlet, the Mississippi." True ; but the inference that 
her loyalty is based upon a material consideration, is un- 
true and unjust. The West has poured out its best blood, 
not on any petty question of navigation, or of trade, but 
upon the weightier issues of Freedom and Nationality. 

The New-Yorker or Pennsylvanian may believe in 



334 A Visit to Rosecrans's Army. [ises. 

tlie greatness of tTie countrj ; the Kansan or Minnesotian, 
who has gone one or two thousand miles to estaWish his 
prairie home, walks by sight and not by faith. To him, 
the Great Republic of the future is no rhetorical flourish 
or flight of fancy, but a living verity. His instinct of 
nationality is the very strongest ; his belief the pro- 
foundest. May he never need Emerson' s pungent criti- 
cism: "The American eagle is good ; protect it, cherish 
it ; but beware of the American peacock !" 

Have you heard Prentice' s last, upon the bursting of 
the Rebel bubble that Cotton is King ? He says : " They 
went in for cotton, and they got worsted I" 

MUEFRBESBOEO, TENNESSEE, April 10. 

A visit to Rosecrans' s army. I rode yesterday over 
the historical battle-ground of Stone River, among rifle- 
pits and breastworks, great oaks, with scarred trunks, 
and tops and branches torn off, and smooth fields thickly 
planted with graves. 

It is interesting to hear from the soldiers reminis- 
cences of the battle. Rosecrans may not be strong in 
planning a campaign, but the thundering guns rouse him 
to the exhibition of a higher military genius than any 
other general in our service has yet displayed. The 
"grand anger of battle" makes him see at a glance the 
needs of the occasion, and stimulates those quick intui- 
tions which enable great captains, at the supreme mo- 
ment, to wrest victory from the very grasp of defeat. Pe- 
culiarly applicable to him is Addison's description of 
Marlborough : — 

" In peaceful thought the field of death surveyed ; 
To fainting squadrons sent the timely aid ; 
Inspired repulsed battalions to engage, 
And taught the doubtful battle where to rage." 



1863.] ROSECRANS IN A GrEAT BaTTLE. 335 

During tlie recent great conflict wMcli "began witli 
disaster tliat would have caused ordinary generals to 
retreat, lie seemed omnipresent, A devout Catholic, he 
performed, before entering the battle, the solemn rites of 
his Church. A profound believer in destiny, he appeared 
like a man who sought for death. A few feet from him, 
a solid shot took off" the head of Garasche, his loved and 
trusted chief of staff. 

"Brave men must die," he said, and plunged into 
the battle again. ' 

He had a word for all. Of an Ohio regiment, lying 
upon the ground, he asked : — 

*'Boys, do you see that strip of woods?" 

*'Yes, sir." 

"Well, in about five minutes, the Rebels will pour 
out of it, and come right toward you. Lie still until you. 
can easily see the buttons on their coats ; then drive 
them back. Do you understand ?" 

"Yes, sir." 

" Well, it's just as easy as rolling off a log, isn't it?" 

They laughingly assented, and "Old Rosy," as the 
soldiers call him, rode along the line, to encourage some 
other corps. 

This is an army of veterans. Every regiment has 
been in battle, and some have marched three thousand 
miles during their checkered campaigning. Their gar- 
ments are old and soiled ; but their guns are bright and 
glistening, and on review their evolutions are clock- 
work. They are splendidly disciplined, of unequaled en- 
thusiasm, full of faith in their general and in themselves. 

Rosecrans is an erect, solid man of one hundred and 
seventy-five pounds weight, whose forty-three years sit 
lightly on his face and frame. He has a clear, mild-blue 
eye, which lights and flashes under excitement ; an in- 



336 A Scene in Memphis. [ises 

tensified Roman nose, high cheek-bones, florid complex- 
ion, mouth and chin hidden under dark-brown beard, 
hair faintly tinged with silver, and growing thin on the 
edges of the high, full, but not broad, forehead. In 
conversation, a winning, mirthful smile illumines his 
face. As Hamlet would take the ghost's word for a 
thousand pounds, so you would trust that countenance 
in a stranger as indicating fidelity, reserved power, an 
overflowing humor, and imperious will. 

Memphis, Tennessee, April 20. 

' Riding near the Elmwood Cemetery, yesterday, I 
witnessed a curious feature of Southern life. It was a 
negro funeral — the cortege, a third of a mile in length, 
just entering that city of the dead. The carriages were 
filled with negro families, and, almost without exception, 
they were driven by white men. If such a picture were 
exhibited in Boston, would those who clamor in our 
ears about negro equality ever permit us to hear the 
last of it 2 



1863.] Running the Yicksburg Batteries. 337 



III. 
THE DTn^aEOK 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



We were all sea-swallowed, though some cast again, 
And by that destined to perform an act, 
■Whereof what's past is prologue. 

Tempest. 



On Sunday evening, May 3d, accompanied Iby Mr. 
Ricliard T. Colburn, of T7ie Neio Yorlc Worlds I reached 
Milliken's Bend, on the Mississippi River, twenty-five 
miles above Vicksburg. Grant' s head-quarters were at 
Grrand Gulf, fifty-five miles below Vicksburg. Fighting 
had already begun. 

We joined my associate, Mr. Junius H. Browne, of The 
Tribune^ who for several days had been awaiting us. 
The insatiate hunger of the people for news, and the 
strong competition between different journals, made one 
day of battle worth a year of camp or siege to the war 
correspondent. • Duty to the paper we represented 
^ required that we should join the army with the least 
possible delay. 

We could go over land, down the Louisiana shore, 
and, if we safely ran the gauntlet of Rebel gparrillas, 
reach Grand Gulf in three days. But a little e'^pedition 
was about to run the Yicksburg batteries. If it sur- 
vived the fiery ordeal, it would arrive at (grant's head- 
quarters in eight hours. Thus far, three-zourths of the 
boats attempting to run the batterieli had escaped 
destruction ; and yielding to the seductive doctrine of 

22 



338 Expedition Badly Fitted Out. [isgs. 

probabilities, we determined to try the short, or water 
route. It proved a very long one. 

At ten o'clock our expedition started. It consisted 
of two great barges of forage and provisions, propelled 
by a little tug between them. For some days, Grant had 
been receiving supplies in this manner, cheaper and easier 
than by transportation over rough Louisiana roads. 

The lives of the men who fitted out the squadron being 
as valuable to them as mine to me, I supposed that all 
needful precautions for safety had been adopted. But, 
when under way, we learned that they were altogether 
inadequate. Indeed, we were hardly on board when we 
discovered that the expedition was so carelessly organ- 
ized as almost to invite capture. 

The night was one of the lightest of the year. We 
had only two buckets, and not a single skiff". Two tugs 
were requisite to steer the unwieldy craft, and Enable us 
to run twelve or fifteen miles an hour. With one we 
could accomplish only seven miles, aided by the strong 
Mississippi current. 

There were thirty-five persons on board — all volun- 
teers. They consisted of .the tug's crew, Captain Ward 
and Surgeon Davidson of the Forty- Seventh Ohio Infan- 
try, with fourteen enlisted men, designed to repel possible 
boarders, and other officers and citizens, en route for the 
army. , 

For two or three hours, we glided silently along the 
glassy waters between banks festooned with heavy, 
drooping foliage. It was a scene of quiet, surpassing 
beauty. Captain Ward suddenly remembered that he 
had some still Catawba in his valise. He was instructed 
to behead the bottle with his sword, that the wine might 
not in any event be wasted. From a soldier's cup of 
gutta-percha we drank to the success of the expedition. 



1863.] Into the Jaws op Death. 339 

At one o'clock in the morning, on the Mississippi 
shore, a rocket shot up and pierced the sky, signaling 
the Rebels of our approach. Ten minutes later, we saw 
the flash and heard the hoom of their first gun. Much 
practice on similar expeditions had given them excellent 
range. The shell struck one of our barges, and ex- 
ploded upon it. 

We were soon under a heavy fire. The range of the 
batteries covered the river for nearly seven miles. The 
Mississippi here is very crooked, resembling the let- 
ter S, and at some points we passed within two hundred 
yards of ten-inch guns, with point-blank range upon us. 
As we moved around the bends, the shots came toward 
us at once from right and left, front and rear. 

Inclination had joined with duty in impelling us to 
accompany the expedition. We wanted to learn how 
one would feel looking into the craters of those volca- 
noes as they poured forth sheets of flame and volleys of 
shells. I ascertained to my fullest satisfaction, as We lay 
among the hay-bales, slowly gliding past them. I 
thought it might be a good thing to do once, but that, if 
we survived it, I should never feel the least desire to re- 
peat the experiment. 

We embraced the bales in Bottom's belief that "good 
hay, sweet hay hath no fellow." 

Discretion was largely the better part of my valor, 
and I cowered close in our partial shelter. But two or 
three times I could not resist the momentary temptation 
to rise and look about me. How the great sheets of 
flame leaped up and spread out from the mouths of the 
guns ! How the shells came screaming and shrieking 
through the air! How they rattled and crashed, pene- 
trating the sides of the barges, or exploding on board in 
great fountains of fire ! 



340 A Moment of Suspense. [ises. 

The moment liardly awakened serene meditations or 
sentimental memories ; "but every time I glanced at that 
picture, Tennyson' s lines rang in my ears : — 

" Cannon to right of them, 
Cannon to left of them, 
Cannon in front of them c 

Yollejed and thundered; 
Stormed at by shot and shell, 
Boldly they rode and well, 
Into the jaws of death, 
Into the mouth of hell 

Eode the six hundred!" 

"Junius" persisted in standing, all exposed, to watch 
tlie coming sliots. Once, as a sliell exploded near at 
hand, he Ml heavily down among the hay-bales. Until 
that moment I never knew what suspense was. I could 
find no voice in which to ask if he lived. I dared not 
put forth my hand in the darkness, lest it should rest on 
his mutilated form. At last he spoke, and relieved my 
anxiety. He had only slipped and fallen. 

Each time, after being struck, we listened for the re- 
assuring puff ! puff ! puff ! of our little engine ; and hear- 
ing it, said : " Thus far, at least, we are all right !" 

'Now we were below the town, having run five miles 
of batteries. Ten minutes more meant safety. Already 
we began to felicitate each other upon our good fortune, 
when the scene suddenly changed. 

A terrific report, like the explosion of some vast mag- 
azine, left us breathless, and seemed to shake the earth 
to its very center. It was accompanied by a shriek 
which I shall never forget, though it seemed to occupy 
less than a quarter of the time consumed by one tick of 
the watch. It was the death-cry Avrung from our cap- 
tain, killed as he stood at the wheel. For his heedless- 



isg:;.] Disabled and Drifting Helplessly. 341 

ness in fitting out the expedition, Ms life was tlie pen- 
alty. 

We listened, but the friendly voice from the tug was 
hushed. We were disabled, and drifting helplessly in 
front of the enemy' s guns ! 

For a moment all was silent. Then there rose from 
the shore the shrill, sharp, ragged yell so familiar to 
the ears of every man who has been in the front, and 
clearly distinguishable from the deep, full, chest-tones in 
which our own men were wont to give their cheers. Many 
times had I heard that Rebel yell, but never when it was 
vociferous and exultant as now. 

Seeing fire among the hay-bales about us, Colburn and 
myself carefully extinguished it with our gloved hands, 
lest the barge should be burnt. Then, creeping out of 
our refuge, we discovered the uselessness of our care. 

That shot had done wonderful execution. It had 
killed the captain, exploded the boiler, then passed into 
the furnace, where the shell itself exploded, throwing up 
great sheets of glowing coals upon both barges. At 
some stage of its progress, it had cut in twain the tug, 
which went down like a plummet. We looked for it, 
but it had disappeared altogether. There was some 
debris — chairs, stools, and parts of machinery, buoyed 
up by timbers, floating upon the surface ; but there was 
no tug. 

The barges, covered with bales of dry hay, had 
caught like tinder, and now, at the stern of each, a great 
sheet of flame rose far toward the sky, filling the night 
with a more than noonday glare. 

Upon the very highest bale, where the flames threw 
out his pale face and dark clothing in very sharp relief, 
stood " Junius," in a careless attitude, looking upon the 
situation with the utmost serenity. My first thought was 



342 Bombarding, Scalding, Burning, Drowning. [ises. 

that tlie one thing lie required to complete the picture 
was an opera-glass. To my earnest injunction to leave 
that exposed position, he replied that, so far as safety 
was concerned, there now was little choice of places. 

Meanwhile, we were under hotter lire than at any 
previous moment. In the confusion caused by our evo- 
lutions in the eddies, I had quite lost the points the of 
compass, and asked : — 

"In which direction is Yicksburg ?" 

"There," replied "Junius," pointing out into the 
lurid smoke. 

"I think it must be on the other shore." 

" Oh, no ! wait here a moment, and you will see the 
flash of the guns." 

Just then I did see the flash of more gans than I 
coveted, and four or five shots came shrieking toward us. 

Colburn and myself instinctively dropped behind the 
nearest hay-bales. A moment after, we were amused to 
observe that we had sought shelter on the wrong side of 
the bales — the side facing the Rebel guns. Our barge 
was so constantly changing j)osition that our geograph- 
ical ideas had become very confused. 

It does not often happen to men, in one quarter of an 
hour, to see death in as many forms as confronted us — 
by bombarding, scalding, burning, and drowning. It 
was uncomfortable, but less exciting than one might 
suppose. The memory impresses me far more deeply 
than did the experience. I remember listening, during 
a little cessation of the din, for the sound of my own 
voice, wondering whether its tones were calm and 
equable. There was hurrying to and fro, and groans 
rent the air. 

"I suppose we can surrender," cried a poor, scalded 
fellow. 



1863.] Taking to a Hay-Bale. 343 

" Surrender — tlie devil ! " replied Colburn. "I sup- 
pose we will figlit them ! ' ' 

It was very creditable to the determination of our 
confrere ; but, to put it mildly, our fighting facilities just 
then were somewhat limited. 

My comrades assisted nearly all wounded and scalded 
men down the sides of the barge to the water' s edge, and 
placed them carefully upon hay-bales. Remaining there, 
we had every thing to lose and nothing to gain, and I 
urged — 

"Let us take to the water."' 

"Oh, yes," my friends replied, "we will after awhile." 

Soon, I repeated the suggestion, and they repeated 
the answer. It was no time to stand upon forms. I 
jumped into the river — twelve or fifteen feet below the 
top of our barge. They rolled over a hay-bale for me. 
I climbed upon it, and found it a sur23risingly comfortable 
means of navigation. At last, free from the instinctive 
dread of mutilation by splinters, which had constantly 
haunted me, I now felt that if wounded at all it must, 
at least, be by a clean shot. The thought was a great 
relief. 

With a dim suspicion — not the ripe and perfect knowl- 
edge afterward obtained — that clothing was scarce in 
the Southern Confederacy, I removed my boots, tied 
them together with my watch-guard, and fastened them 
to one of the hoops of the bale. Taking ofi" my coat, I 
secured it in the same manner. 

I was about swimming away in a vague, blundering 
determination not to be captured, when, for the first time 
in my life, I saw a shot coming toward me. I had always 
been sceptical on this point. Many persons had averred 
to me that they could see shots approaching ; but remem- 
bering that such a missile flying toward a man with a 



344 Overturned by a Shot. [ises. 

scream and a rush would not quicken his vision, and 
judging from my own experience, I supposed thej must 
"be deceived. 

Now, far up the river I saw a shot coming with vivid 
distinctness. How round, smooth, shining, and black it 
looked, ricochetting along, plunging into the water, 
throvping up great jets of spray, bounding like a school- 
boy' s ball, and then skimming the river again ! It 
struck about four feet from my hay-bale, which was now 
a few yards from the burning barge. 

The great sheet of water which dashed up quite ob- 
scured me from Colburn and "Junius," who, upon the 
bows of the barge, were just bidding me adieu.. At first 
they thought the shot an extinguisher. But it did me no 
greater harm than partially to overturn my hay-bale and 
dip me into the river. A little more or less dampness 
just then was not of much consequence. It was the last 
shot which I saw or heard. The Rebels now ceased 
firing, and shouted — 

" Have you no boats ? " 

Learning that we had none, they sent out a yawl. I 
looked about for a plank, but could find none adapted to 
a long voyage. Rebel pickets were on both sides of the 
river, and Rebel batteries lined it ten or twelve miles be- 
low, at a point which, by floating, one could reach at 
daylight. Surrender seemed the only alternative. 

At Memphis, two days before, I had received a pack- 
age of letters, including two or three from the Tribune 
office, and some which treated of public men, and mili- 
tary strength, movements, and prospects, with great free- 
dom. One of them, from Admiral Foote, containing some 
very kind words, I sorely regretted to lose ; but the pack- 
age was quite too valuable to be submitted to the scru- 
tiny of the enemy. I kept it until the last moment, but 



K 

o 



w 



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Mmmmii99m 




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#nJll 



I II' I 



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. i ■ 



txiiJ?* 



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111 11 

.fii Pa 111 1 



Un"l«f^ 



N*vr\' 



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1863.] Rescued from the River. 345 

■when the Rebel yawl approached within twenty feet, tore 
the letters in pieces and threw them into the Mississippi. 

The boat was nearly full. After picking me np, it re- 
ceived on board two scalded men who were floating near, 
and whose groans were heart-rending. 

We were deposited on the Mississippi shore, nnder 
guard of four or Ave soldiers in gray, and the yawl went 
back to receive the remainder. Among the saved I 
found Surgeon Davidson. He was unable to swim, but 
some one had carefully placed him upon a hay-bale. Qn 
reaching the shore, he sat down npon a stool, which he 
had rescued from the river, spread his overcoat upon his 
knee, and deposited his carpet-sack beside him. It was 
the first case I ever knew of a man so hopelessly ship- 
wrecked, who saved all his baggage, and did not even 
wet his feet. 

The boat soon returned. To my infinite relief, the 
first persons who sprang to the shore were "Junius" and 
Colburn. Sartorially they had been less fortunate than 
I. One had lost his coat, and the other was without 
shoes, stockings, coat, vest, or hat. 

There, in the moonlight, guarded by Rebel bayonets, 
we counted the rescued, and found that just sixteen — less 
than half our number — were alive and unharmed. All 
the rest were killed, scalded, or wounded. 

Some of the scalded were piteous spectacles. The 
raw flesh seemed almost ready to drop from their faces ; 
and they ran hither and thither, half wHd from excru- 
ciating pain. 

None of the wounded were unable to walk, though 
one or two had broken arms. The most had received 
slight contusions, which a few days would heal. 

The missing numbered eight or ten, not one of whom 
was ever heard of afterward. It was impossible to 



346 The Killed, Wounded, and Missing. [ises. 

obtain any correct list of their names, as several of them 
were strangers to iis and to each other ; and no record 
had been made of the persons starting npon the expe- 
dition. 

We were two miles below the city, whither the 
lieutenant of our guard now marched us. 



1863.} Standing by Our Colors. , 347 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



It is not for prisoners to be too silent. 

Love's Laboe Lost. 



Oisr the way, one of our party enjoined my colleague 
and myself — 

" You had better not say Tribune to the Rebels. 
Tell them yoa are correspondents of some less obnoxious 
journal." 

Months before, I had asked three Confederate oflBlcers 
• — paroled prisoners within our lines : — 

" What would you do with a Tribune correspondent, 
if you captured him ?' ' With the usual recklessness, two 
had answered : — 

" We would hang him upon the nearest sapling." 

This remembrance was not cheering ; but as we were 
the first correspondents of a radical Northern journal 
who had fallen into the enemy's hands, after a moment's 
interchange of views, we decided to stand by our colors, 
and tell the plain truth. It proved much the wiser 
course. 

One of the rescued men, coatless and hatless, with his 
face blackened until he looked like a native of Timbuc- 
too, addressed me familiarly. Unable to recognize him, 
I asked : — 

"Who are you?" 

" Why," he replied, " I am Captain Ward."* 

* Commander, not of the tug, whose captain was killed, but of the soldiers 
guarding it and the barges. 



348 CONFIKEMENT IN THE YlCKSBUEG JaIL. [1863 

When the explosion occurred, he was sitting on the 
hurricane roof of the tug. It was more exposed than any 
other position, but the officers of the boat had shown 
symptoms of fear, and he determined to be where his re- 
volver would enable him to control them if they at- 
tempted to desert us. 

Some missile struck his head and stunned him. 
When he recovered consciousness, the tug had gone to 
the bottom, and he was struggling in the river. He had 
strength enough to clutch a rope hanging over the side of 
a barge, and keep his head above water. Permitting his 
sword and revolver, which greatly weighed him down, 
to sink, he called to his men on the blazing wreck. 
Under the hot fire of cannon and musketry, they formed 
a rope of their belts, and let it down to him. He 
fastened it under his arms ; they lifted him up to the 
barge, whence he escaped by the hay-bale line. 

At Vicksburg, the commander of the City Gruards 
registered our names. 

"I hope, sir," said Colburn, "that you will give us 
comfortable qn arters. ' ' 

With a half-surprised expression, the major replied, 
dryly :— 

" Oh ! yes, sir ; we will do the best we can for you." 

"The best" proved ludicrously bad. Just before 
daylight we were taken into the city jail. Its foul yard 
was half filled with criminals and convicts, black and 
white, all du^ty and covered with vermin. In its midst 
was an open sewer, twelve or fifteen feet in diameter, 
the grand receptacle of all the prison filth. The rising 
sun of that sultry morning penetrated its reeking depths, 
and produced the atmosphere of a pest-house. 

We dried our clothing before a fire in the yard, con- 
versed with the villainous-looking jail-birds, and laughed 



1863.] The First Glimpse of Sambo. 349 

SLbout this unexpected result of our adventure. We had 
felt the danger of wounds or death ; but it had not oc- 
curred to either of us that we might he captured. One of 
the private soldiers had paid a dollar for the privilege of 
coming on the expedition. To our query whether he 
deemed the money well invested, he replied that he 
would not have missed the experience for ten times the 
amount. One youth, confined in the jail for thieving, 
asked us the question, with which we were soon to 
grow familiar : — 

" What did you all come down here for, to steal our 
niggers ?" 

At noon we were taken out and marched through the 
streets. " Junius' s" hare and bleeding feet excited the 
sympathy of a lady, who immediately aent him a pair 
of stockings, requesting if ever he met any of "our 
soldiers" suffering in the North, that he would do as 
much for them. The donor — Mrs. Arthur— was a very 
earnest Unionist, with little sympathy for "our sol- 
diers," but used the phrase as one of the habitual sub- 
terfuges of the Loyalists. 

While we waited in the office of the Provost-Marshal, 
I obtained a first brief glimpse of the inevitable negro. 
Just outside the open window, which extended to the 
floor, stood an African, with great shining eyes, express- 
ing his sympathy through remarkable grimaces and con- 
tortions, bowing, scraping, and 

" Husking Ma wMte ivories like an ear of com." 

Rebel citizens and soldiers were all about him ; and, 
somewhat alarmed, I indicated by a look that he should 
be a little less demonstrative. But Sambo, as usual, 
knew what he was doings and was not detected. 

The Provost-Marshal, Captain Wells, of the Twenty- 



350 Paroled to Return Home. [isgs. 

eiglitli Louisiana Infantry, courteously assigned to us the 
upper story of the court-house, posting a sentinel at the 
door. 

Major Watts, the Rebel Agent of Exchange, called 
upon us and administered the following parole : — 

CONEEDEEATE STATES OF AMERICA. 

ViCKSBTjRG, Mississippi, ifay 4, 1868. 
This is to certify, that in accordance with a Cartel in regard to an 
exchange of prisoners entered into between the Governments of the 
United States of America and tlie Confederate States of America, on 
the 22d day of July, 1862, Albert D. Eichardson, citizen of New York, 
who was captured on the 4th day of May, at Yicksburg, and has 
since been held as a prisoner of war by the military authorities of the 
said Confederate States, is hereby paroled, with full leave to return to Jiis 
country on the following conditions, namely : that he will not take up 
arms again, nor serve as military police or constabulary force in any 
fort, garrison, or field-work, held by either of said parties, nor As a guard 
of prisoners, depots, or stores, nor discharge any duty usually performed 
by soldiers, until exchanged under the Cartel referred to. The afore- 
said Albert D. Richardson signifying his full and free consent to said 
conditions by his signature hereto, thereby solemnly pledges his word 
and honor to a due observance of the same. 

Albert D. Eichaedson. 
F. G. "Watts, 
Major Confederate States Army, and Agent for Exchange of Prisoners. 

This parole was regular, formal, and final, taken at a 
regular point of exchange, by an officer duly appointed 
under the express provisions of the cartel. Major Watts 
informed us that he was prevented from sending us across 
the lines at Yicksburg, only because Grant' s operations 
had suspended flag-of-truce communication. He as- 
sured us, that while he was thus compelled to forward 
us to Richmond, the only other point of exchange, we 
should not be detained there beyond the arrival of the 
first truce-boat. 



1863.] Turning the Tables Handsomely. 351 

These formalities ended, the major, wlio was a polite, 
kind-]iearted, rather pompous little of&cer, made an at- 
tempt at condolence and consolation. 

"Gentlemen," said lie, with a good deal of self-com- 
placency, "you are a long way from home. Howeyer, 
do not despond ; I have met a great many of your people 
in this condition ; I have paroled some thousands of 
them, first and last. In fact, I confidently expect, with- 
in the next ten days, to see Major- General Grant, who 
commands your army, a |)risoner in this room." 

We knew something about that ! Of course, we were 
familiar with the size of Grant' s army ; and, before we 
had been many hours in the Rebel lines, we found 
Union people who told us minutely the strength of 
Pemberton, So we replied to the prophet, that, while 
we had no sort of doubt of his seeing General Grant 
there, it would not be exactly in the capacity of a 
prisoner ! 

Colburn — who had the good fortune, for that occasion, 
to be attached to The Worlds and who, on reaching 
Richmond, was sent home by the first truce-boat — came 
back to Yicksburg in season to be in at the deatli. One 
of the first men he met, after the capture of the city, was 
Watts, to whom he rehearsed this little scene, with the 
characters reversed. 

" Major," said he, with dry humor, "you are a long 
distance from home ! But do not despond ; I have seen 
a good many of your people in tliis condition. In fact, 
I believe there are about thirty thousand of them here 
to-day, including Lieutenant- General Pemberton, who 
commands your army." 

We stayed in Yicksburg two days. Our noisy advent 
made us objects of attention. Several Rebel journalists 
visited us, with tenders of clothing, money, and any as- 



352 Visits from Many Rebels. [1863. 

sistance tliey could render. Confederate officers and 
citizens called in large numljers, inquiring eagerly albout 
the condition of the ]S"ortli, and the public feeling touch- 
ing the war. 

Some complained that ^Northern officers, while in 
confinement, had said to them : "While we are in favor 
of the Union, we disapprove altogether the war as con- 
ducted by this Abolition Administration, with its tenden- 
cies to negro equality;" but that, after reaching home, 
the same persons were peculiarly radical and blood- 
thirsty. 

As political affairs were the only topic of conversa- 
tion, we had excellent opportunity for preventing any 
similar misunderstanding touching ourselves. Courte- 
ously, but frankly, we told them that we were in favor 
of the war, of emancipation, and of arming the negroes. 
They manifested considerable feeling, but used no harsh 
expressions. Two questions they invariably asked : — 

' ' What are you going to do with us, after you have 
subjugated us ? " and, "What will you do with the ne- 
groes, after you have freed them ?" 

They talked muc]^ of our leading officers, all seem- 
ing to consider Rosecrans the best general in the Union 
service. Nearly all used the stereotyped Rebel expres- 
sion : — 

" You can never conquer seven millions of people on 
their own soil. We will fight to the last man ! We will 
die in the last ditch ! " 

We reminded them that the determination they ex- 
pressed was by no means peculiar to them, referring 
to Bancroft, in proof that even the Indian tribes, at war 
with the early settlers of New England, used exactly the 
same language. We asked one Texan colonel, noticeably 
voluble concerning the "last ditch," what he meant by 



1863] Interview with Jacob Thompson. 353 

it — if he really intended to fight after their armies should 
be dispersed and their cities taken. 

"Oh, no ! " he replied, "you don't suppose I'm a fool, 
do you ? As long as there is any show for us, we shall 
fight you. If you win, most of us will go to South 
America, Mexico, or Europe." 

On Monday evening, Major-General Forney, of Ala- 
bama, sent an officer to escort us to his head-quarters. He 
received us with great frigidity, and we endeavored to 
"be quite as icy as he. With some of his staff officers, 
genial young fellows educated in the North, we had a 
pleasant chat. 

Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, Buchanan's Secre- 
tary of the Interior, and now a colonel on the staff of 
Lieutenant-General Pemberton, was at the same head- 
quarters. With the suavity of an old politician, he con- 
versed with us for two or three hours. He asserted that 
some of our soldiers had treated his aged mother with 
great cruelty. He declared that Northern dungeons now 
contained at least three thousand inoffensive Southern 
citizens, who had never taken up arms, and were held 
only for alleged disloyalty. 

Many other Rebel officers talked a great deal about 
arbitrary arrests in the North. Several gravely assured us 
that, in the South, from the beginning of the war, no 
citizen had ever been arrested, except by due process of 
law, under charges well defined, and publicly made. We 
were a little astounded, afterward, to learn how utterly 
bare-faced was this falsehood. 

On Tuesday evening we started for Jackson, Missis- 
sippi, in company with forty other Union prisoners. 
They were mainly from Ohio regiments, young in years, 
but veteran soldiers — farmers' sons, with intelligent, earn- 
est faces. Pemberton' s army was in motion. Our train 

23 



354 Arrival in Jackson, Mississippi. [isgs. 

passed slowly throngli his camps, and halted half an 
hour at several points, among crowds of Rebel privates. 

The Ohio hoys and their guards were on the hest pos- 
sible terms, drinking whisky and playing euchre to- 
gether. The former indulged in a good deal of verbal 
skinnishing with the soldiers outside, thrusting their 
heads from the car windows and shouting : — 

" Look out, Rebs ! The Yankees are coming ! Keep 
on marching, if you don't want old Grant to catch you !" 

" How are times in the North ? " the Confederates re- 
plied. "Cotton a dollar and twenty-five cents a pound 
in New York ! " 

"How are times in the South? Flour one hundred 
and seventy-five dollars a barrel in Vicksburg, and none 
to be had at that ! " 

After waiting vainly for an answer to this quenching 
retort, the Buckeyes sang "Yankee Doodle," the "Star- 
Spangled Banner," and "John Brown's Body lies a- 
moldering in the Gfround," for the edification of their 
bewildered foes. 

Before dark, we reached Jackson. Though a prison- 
er, I entered it with far more pleasurable feelings than at 
my last visit ; for my tongue was now free, and I was 
not sailing under false colors. The dreary little city was 
in a great panic. Before we had been five minutes in the 
street, a precocious young newsboy came running among 
us, and, while shouting — "Here's The Mississippian 
extra !" talked to us incessantly in a low tone : — 

" How are you, Yanks ? You have come in a capital 
time. Greatest panic you ever saw. Everybody flying 
out of town. Governor Pettus issued a proclamation, 
telling the people to stand firm, and then ran away him- 
self before the ink was dry." 

We remained in Jackson three days. Upon parole, 



1863.] KiNDKESS FROM SOUTHERN EDITORS. 355 

we were allowed to take our meals at a boarding-house 
se\^eral squares from the prison, and to visit the office 
of TTie Appeal. This journal, originally published at 
Memphis, was removed to Grenada upon the approach 
of our forces ; Grenada being threatened, it was trans- 
ferred to Jackson ; thence to Atlanta, and finally to 
Montgomery, Alabama. It was emphatically a moving 
Appeal. 

\ V Its editors very kindly supplied us with clothing and 
money, They seemed to be sick of the war, and to retain 
little faith in the Rebel cause, for which they had sacri- 
ficed so much, abandoning property in Memphis to the 
amount of thirty thousand dollars. They now published 
the most enterprising and readable newspaper in the 
South. It was noticeably free from vituperation, calling 
the President "Mr. Lincoln," instead of the "Illinois 
Baboon," and characterizing us not as Yankee scoun- 
drels, but as "unwilling guests" — 

" Gentlemen who attempted to run tlie batteries on Sunday night, 
and after escaping death from shot and shell, from being scalded by the 
rushing steam, from roasting by the lively flames that enveloped their 
craft, were found in the river by a rescuing party, each clinging tena- 
ciously to a bale of hay for safety." 

Grant's army was moving toward Jackson. We 
longed for his approach, straining our ears for the boom- 
ing of his guns. The Rebels, in their usual strain, de- 
clared that the city could not be captured, and would be 
defended to the last drop of blood. But on the night 
before our departure, we were confidentially told that 
the Federal advance was already within twenty-five 
miles, and certain to take the town. 

With forty-five unarmed prisoners, we were placed 
on an ammunition train, which had not more than a 



356 A Project for Escape. ' [ises. 

dozen guards. The privates "begged Captain Ward to 
lead them, and permit them to capture the train. We 
all deemed the project feasible. Ten minutes would 
suffice to blow up the cars. With twelve guns, we 
could easily march twenty miles through those sparse 
settlements to Grrant' s forces. 

But there were our paroles 1 A careful reading con- 
vinced us that if we failed in the attempt, the enemy 
would be justified, under the laws of war, in punishing 
us with death ; and, after much debate, we abandoned 
the project. 

Rebel officers in Vicksburg had assured us that 
crossing the Confederacy from the Mississippi to the 
Atlantic, upon the Southern railroads, was a more haz- 
ardous undertaking than running the river batteries. 
The rolling stock was iu wretched condition, and fatal 
accidents frequently occurred ; but we traveled at a 
leisurely, old-fashioned rate, averaging eight miles per 
hour, making long stops, and seldom running by night 



1863.] A Word with a Union Woman. 357 



CHAPTER XXX. 

A kind of excellent, dumb discourse. — Tempest. 

It did not require many days of captivity to teach ns 
the infinite expressiveness and trustworthiness of the 
human eye. We began to recognize Union people hy 
their friendly look before they spoke a word. 

Our train stopped for dinner at a secluded Mississippi 
tavern. At the door of the long dining-room stood the 
landlady, an intelligent woman of about thirty-five. When 
I handed her a twenty-dollar Rebel note, she inquired — 

" Have you nothing smaller than this ? " 

"1^0 Confederate money," I answered. 

" State currency will answer just as well." 

" I have none of that — nothing but this bill and United 
States Treasury Notes." 

The indifferent face instantly kindled into friendliness 
and sympathy. 

"Are you one of the prisoners ? " 

"Yes, madam." 

* ' Just from Vicksburg ? " 

"Yes." 

" What do you think of the prospect I " 

" Grant is certain to capture the city." 

" Of course he will" (with great earnestness), " if he 
only tries ! The force there is incapable of resisting 
him." 

Other passengers coming within hearing, I moved 



358 Grierson's Great Mississippi Raid. [isea 

away, but I would unhesitatingly liave trusted that wo- 
man with, my liberty or my life. 

Grierson's raid,, then in progress, was the universal 
theme of conversation and wonder. That dashing cava- 
lier, selecting his route with excellent judgment, evaded 
all the large forces which opposed him, and defeated all 
the small ones, while he rode leisurely the entire length 
of Mississippi, tearing up railroads and biirning bridges. 
Occasionally he addressed the people in humorous 
harangues. To one old lady, who tremblingly begged 
that her property might not be destroyed, he replied : — 

' ' You shall certainly be protected, madam. It is not 
my object to hurt any body. It is not generally known, 
but the truth is, I am a candidate for Governor, and am 
stumping the State." . 

Our slow progress enabled us to converse much with 
the people, constantly preaching to them the gospel of 
the Union. But they had so long heard only the gospel 
according to Jefferson Davis, that they paid little heed to 
our threatenings of the judgment which was certain to 
come. 

In the dense woods which the railways traversed, the 
pine, the palm and the magnolia, grew side by side, fes- 
tooned with long, hairy tufts of Spanish moss. On the 
plantations, the young cotton, three inches high, looked 
like sprouting beans. 

Colburn's solemn waggery was constantly cropping 
out. In our car one day he had a long discussion with 
a brawny Texan officer, who declared with great bitter- 
ness that he had assisted in hanging three Abolitionists 
upon a single blackjack,* in sight of his own door. He 
concluded with the usual assertion : — 

* A species of Southern oak. 



1863.] An Enraged Texan Officer. 359 

"■ We will fight to the last man ! We will die in the 
last ditch!" 

"Well, sir," replied Colburn, with the ntmost grav- 
ity, "if you should do that and all be killed, we should 
regret it extremely ! " 

Like most Southerners, the Texan was insensible to 
satire. Understanding this to be perfectly sincere, he 
reiterated : — 

" We shall do it, sir ! We shaU do it ! " 

" Well, sir, as I said before, if you do, and all happen 
to get killed, including the very last man himself, of 
course we of the North shall be quite heart-broken !" 

Once comprehended, the mock condolence enraged 
the huge Texan fearfully. For a few seconds his eyes 
were the most wicked I ever saw. He looked ready to 
spring upon Colburn and tear him in pieces ; but it was 
the last we heard of his bravado. 

One of our fellow-prisoners had manifested great trepi- 
dation while we lay disabled in front of Vicksburg. He 
was probably no more frightened than the rest of us, but 
had less self-control, running to and fro on the burning 
barge, wringing his hands, and shrieking: "My God! 
my God ! We shall aU be killed ! " 

Three or four days later, Colburn asked him — 

" Were you ever under fire before Sunday night 1" 

"Never," he replied, with uneasy, questioning 
looks. 

"Well, sir," solemnly continued the satirist, "I 
think, in view of that fact, that you behaved with more 
coolness than any man I ever saw ! ' ' 

While we preserved our gravity with the utmost diffi- 
culty, the victim scrutinized his tormentor very suspi- 
ciously. But that serious, immovable face told no tales, 
and he finally received the compliment as serious. From 



360 Waggery of a Captured Scribe. [ises. 

that time, it was Colburn's daily delight, to remark, with 
eyer-increasing admiration : — 

'i'^Y. , I cannot help rememhering how mar- 

yelously self-possessed you were during those exciting 
minutes. I never saw your coolness equaled by a man 
under fire for the first time." 

Before we reached Richmond, the new-fledged hero 
received his praises with complacent and serene conde- 
scension. He will, doubtless, tell his children and grand- 
children of the encomium his courage won from com- 
panions, who, "born and nursed in Danger's path, had 
dared her worst." 

At Demopolis, Alabama, we encountered a planter re- 
moving from Mississippi, where Grierson and Grant were 
rapidly depreciating slave property. He had with him a 
long gang of negroes, some chained together in pairs, with 
handcuffs riveted to their wrists. 

While the train stopped, a young fellow from Ken- 
tucky, captain and commissary in the Confederate army, 
took me up to his room, on pretext of " a quiet drink." 

"When I went into the war," said he, "I thought it 
would be a nice little diversion of about two weeks, with 
a good deal of fun and no fighting. 'Now, I would give 
my right arm to escape from it ; but there is no such good 
fortune for me. When you reach the North, write to my 
friends at home, giving them my love, and saying that 
I wish I had followed their advice." 

A benevolent lady was at the station, with her car- 
riage, distributing cakes among the Rebel soldiers and 
the Union prisoners. 

At Selma, a new officer took charge of our party. 
The post commandant instructed him how to treat the 
privates, and, pointing to the two officers and the three 
journalists, added: — 



1863.] The Alabama Rivek and Montgomery. 361 

" You will consider these gentlemen not under your 
guard, "but under your escort." 

We took a steamer up the Alabama River. As we sat 
looking out upon the beautiful stream, it was amusing to 
hear the comments of the negro chamber-maids : — 

" How mean the Southern soldiers look ! But just see 
those Yankees ! Anybody might know that they are 
Gfod's own people !" 

The pilot of the boat, a native Alabamian, took me 
aside, stating that he was an unconditional Union man, 
and inquiring eagerly about the North, which, he feared, 
might abandon the contest. 

We spent Sunday, May 11th, in the pleasant city of 
Montgomery : strolling at pleasure through the shaded 
streets, and at evening taking a bath in the Alabama, 
swimming round a huge Rebel ram, then nearly com- 
pleted. We gained some knowledge of its character and 
dimensions, which, after reaching Richmond, we suc- 
ceeded in transmitting to the Government. 

The officer in charge of our party spent the night in 
camp Avith his men, but we slept at the Exchange Hotel. 
When we registered our names, the bystanders, with 
their broad-brimmed hats, long pipes, and heavy South- 
ern faces, manifested a good deal of curiosity to see what 
they termed "two of old Greeley's correspondents." 
They asked us many questions of the North, and of our 
army experiences. Several said emphatically that, ere 
long, the people would " take this thing out of the hands 
of politicians, and settle it themselves." 

Reaching Atlanta, we were placed in the filthy, ver- 
min-infested military prison. Encouraged by the cour- 
tesies we had received from Rebel journals, we sent, 
through the commandant, a card to one of the newspaper 
offices, asking for a few exchanges. The blundering 



362 Atlanta Editors Advocate HANaiNG Us. [isea. 

messenger took it to the wrong establisTiment, leaving it 
at the office of an intensely bitter sheet called The Con- 
federate. The next morning we were not allowed to 
purchase newspapers. Learning that The Confederate 
commented upon our request, we induced an attache of 
the prison to smuggle a copy to us, and found the follow- 
ing leader : — 

"Last evening some correspondents of The New TorTc World and 
Hew Torlc Tribune were brought here among a batch of prisoners cap- 
tured at Vicksburg a few days ago. They had not been here a half hour 
before the impudent scamps got one of the sentinels guarding the bar- 
racks to go around to the newspaper offices in this city with their 
'card,' requesting the favor of some exchange-papers to read. Their 
impudence is beyond comprehension, upon any other consideration than 
that they belong to the Yankee press-gang. Yankees are everywhere 
more impudent than any honest race of people can be, and a Yankee 
newspaper-man is the quintessence of all impudence. We thought we 
had seen and understood something of this Yankee accomplishment in 
times gone by (some specimens of it have been seen in the South) ; but 
the unheard-of effrontery that prompted these villains, who, caught in 
company with the thieving, murdering vandals who have invaded our 
country, despoiled our homes, murdered our citizens, destroyed our 
property, violated our wives, sisters, and daughters, to boldly claim of 
the press of the South the courtesies and civilities which gentlemen of 
the press usually extend to each other, is above and beyond all the un- 
blushing audacity we ever imagined. They had come along with E"orth- 
ern vandals, to chronicle their rapes, arsons, plunders, and murders, and 
to herald them to the world as_^ deeds of heroism, greatness, and glory. 
They are our vilest and most unprincipled enemies — far more deeply 
steeped in guilt, and far more richly deserving death, than the vilest van- 
dal that ever invaded the sanctity of our soil and outraged our homes 
and our peace. We would greatly prefer to assist in hanging these 
enemies to humanity, than to show them any civilities or courtesies. 
The common robber, thief, and murderer, is more respectable, in our esti- 
mation, than these men ; for he never tries to make his crimes respect- 
able, but always to conceal them. These men, however, have come 
ipto our country with the open robbers and murderers of our people, for 
the express purpose of whitewashing their hellish deeds, and presenting 



1863.] A Pair of Renegade Yermonters. 363 

them to tlie world as great deeds of virtuous heroism. They deserve a 
rope's end, and will not receive their just deserts till their crimes are 
punished with death." 

The Rebel authorities were very sensitive to news- 
paper censure. With unusual rigoi", they now refused 
us permission to go outside the prison for meals, though 
offering to have them sent in, at our expense, from the 
leading hotel. They told us that The Confederate was 
edited by two renegade Yermonters. 

" I am not very fond of Yankees, myself," remarked 
Hunnicutt, the heavy -jawed, broad-necked, coarse-feat- 
ured lieutenant commanding the prison. " I am as much 
in favor of hanging them as anybody ; but these Yer- 
monters, who haven't been here six months, are a little 
too violent. They don't own any niggers. 'Tisn't natu- 
ral. There's something wrong about them. If I were 
going to hang Yankees at a venture, I think I would 
begin with them." 

An Irish warden brought us, from a Jew outside, three 
hundred Confederate dollars, in exchange for one hun- 
dred in United States currency. For a fifty-dollar Rebel 
note he procured me a cap of southern manufacture, to 
replace my hat, which had been snatched from my head 
by a South Carolina officer, passing upon a railroad train 
meeting our own. The new cap, of grayish cotton, a 
marvel of roughness and ugliness, elicited roars of laugh- 
ter from my comrades. 

On the journey thus far, we had gone almost wherever 
we pleased, unguarded and unaccompanied. But from 
Atlanta to Richmond we were treated with rigor and very 
closely watched. A Rebel officer begged of "Junius" 
his fine pearl-handled pocket knife. Receiving it, he at 
once conceived an affection for a gold ring upon the pris- 
oner' s finger. Even the courtesy of my colleague was not 



364 Treated with Unusual Rigor. "^ [ises. 

proof against tMs second impertinence, and lie contempt- 
uously declined tlie request. 

The captain in charge of us stated that his orders 
were imperative to keep all newspapers from us ; and 
on no account to permit us to leave the railway carriage. 
But, finding that we still ol)tained the daily journals 
from fellow-passengers, he made a virtue of necessity, 
and gracefully acquiesced. At last, he even allowed us 
to take our meals at the station, upon teing invited to 
participate in them at the expense of his prisoners. 



1863.] Arrival in Richmond. 365 



CHAPTER XXXI 



— Give me to drink mandragora, 



That I may sleep out this great gap of time. 

Antony and Cleopatea. 

At 5 o'clock on the morning of Saturday, May 16tli, 
we reached Richmond. At that early hour, the clothing- 
depot of the Confederate government was surrounded by 
a crowd of poor, ill- clad women, seeking work. 

We were marched to the Libby Prison. Up to this 
time we had never been searched. I had even kept my 
revolver in my pocket until reaching Jackson, Missis- 
sippi, where, knowing I could not much longer conceal 
it, I gave it to a friend. N"ow a Rebel sergeant carefully 
examined our clothing. All money, except a few dol- 
lars, was taken from us, and the flippant little prison 
clerk, named Ross, with some inquiries not altogether 
affectionate concerning the health of Mr. Grreeley, gave 
■QS receipts. 

As we passed through the guarded iron gateway, I 
glanced instinctively above the portal in search of its 
fitting legend : — 

" Abandon all hope who enter here." 

Up three flights of stairs, we were escorted into a 
room, fifty feet by one hundred and twenty-five^ filled 
with ofiicers lying in blankets upon the fioor and upon 
rude bunks. Some shouted, "More Yankees! — more 
Yankees!" while many crowded about us to hear our 
story, and learn the news from the West. 



366 Incaecerated in Libby Prison. [ises. 

We soon found friends, and "became domesticated in 
onr novel quarters. With, tlie American tendency to- 
ward organization, the prisoners divided into companies 
of four each. Our journalistic trio and Captain Ward 
ceased to be individuals, becoming merely "Mess JSTum- 
ber Twenty-one." 

The provisions, at this time consisting of good flour, 
bread, and salt pork, were brought into the room in bulk. 
A commissary, elected by the captives from their own 
number, divided them, delivering its quota to each mess. 

Picking up two or three rusty tin plates and rheu- 
matic knives and forks, we commenced housekeeping. 
The labor of preparation was not arduous. It consisted 
in making little sacks of cotton cloth for salt, sugar, pep- 
per, and rice, fitting up a shelf for our dishes, and spread- 
ing upon the floor blankets, obtained from our new 
comrades, and originally sent to Richmond by the United 
States Government for the benefit of prisoners. 

The Libby authorities, and white and negro attaches^ 
were always hungry for "greenbacks," and glad to give 
Confederate currency in exchange. The rates varied 
greatly. The lowest was two dollars for one. During 
my imprisonment, I bought fourteen for one, and, a few 
weeks after our escape, thirty were given for one. 

A prison sergeant went out every morning to purchase 
supplies. He seemed honest, and through him we could 
obtain, at extravagant prices, dried apples, sugar, eggs, 
molasses, meal, flour, and corn burnt and ground as a 
substitute for coffee. Without these additions, our ra- 
tions would hardly have supported life. 

In our mess, each man, in turn, did the cooking for 
an entire day. In that hot, stifling room, frying pork, 
baking griddle-cakes, and boiling coffee, over the crazy, 
smoking, broken stove, around which there was a con- 



1863.] Sufferings from Vermin. 367 

stant crowd, "were disagreeable in the extreme. The 
prison liours were long, "but the cooking-days recurred 
with unpleasant frequency. 

We scrubbed our room two or three times a week,f 
and it ws^s fumigated every morning. At one end stood 
a huge wooden tank, with an abundant supply of cold 
water, in Avhich we could bathe at pleasure. 

The vermin were the most revolting feature of the 
prison, and the one to which it was the most difficult to 
become resigned. No amount of personal cleanliness 
could guard our bodies against the insatiate lice. Only 
by examining under-clothing and destroying them once 
or twice a day, could they be kept from swarming upon 
us. For the first week, I could not think of them with- 
out shuddering and faintness : but in time I learned to 
make my daily entomological researches with calm com- 
placency. 

In I^ashville, two weeks before my capture, I met 
Colonel A. D. Streight, of Indiana. At the head of a 
.provisional brigade from Rosecrans's army, he was about 
starting on a raid through northern Alabama and Georgia. 
The expedition promising more romance and novelty than 
ordinary army experiences, now grown a little monoto- 
nous, I desired to accompany him ; but other duties 
prevented. I had been in Libby just four hours, when 
in walked Streight, followed by the officers of his entire 
brigade. We had taken very different routes, but they 
brought us to the same terminus. 

Streight' s command had been furnished with mules, 
averaging about two years old, and quite unused to the 
saddle. Utterly worthless, they soon broke down, and 
with much difficulty, he remounted his men upon horses, 
pressed from the citizens ; but the delay proved fatal. 

The Rebel General Forrest overtook him with a 



^ 



368 Prisoners Denounced as Blasphemous. [ises. 

largely superior force. Streight was an enterprising, 
TDrave officer, and his exhausted men l)ehaved admirably 
in four or five fights ; but at last, near Rome, Georgia, 
after losing one third of his command, the colonel was 
compelled to surrender. The Rebels were very exultant, 
and Forrest — originally a slave-dealer in Memphis, and 
a greater falsifier than Beauregard himself — telegraphed 
that, with four hundred men, he had captured twenty- 
eight hundred. 

Lieutenant Charles Pavie, of the Eightieth Illinois, who 
commanded Streight's artillery, came in with his coat 
torn to shreds ; a piece of shell had struck him in the 
back, inflicting only a flesh wound. Upon feeling the 
shock, he instinctively clapped his hands to his stomach, 
to ascertain if there was a hole there, under the impres- 
sion that the entire shell had passed through his body ! 

The prisoners bore their confinement with good- 
humor and hilarity. During the long evenings, they 
joined in the " Star- Spangled Banner," "Old Hundred," 
" Old John Brown," and other patriotic and religious 
airs. Tlie Richmond Whig, shocked that the profane 
and ungodly Yankees should presume to sing "Old 
Hundred," denounced it as a piece of blasphemy. 

Captain Brown and his ofl3.cers, of the United States 
gunboat Indianola, were pointed out to me as men who 
had actually been in prison for three months. I re- 
garded them with pity and wonder. It seemed utterly 
impossible that I could endure confinement for half that 
time. After-experiences inclined me to patronize new- 
comers, and regard with lofty condescension, men who 
had been prisoners only twelve or fifteen months ! " The 
Father of the Marshalsea" became an intelligible and 
.sympathetic personage, with whom we should have hob- 
nobbed delightfully. 



18G3.] Thievery of a "Virginia Gentleman." 369 

Simultaneously with our arrival in Richmond, a Rebel 
officer of the exchange bureau received a request from 
the editor of The World, for the release of Mr. Colburn. 
It proved as efficient as if it had been an order from 
Jefferson Davis. After ten days' confinement in Libby, 
Colbura was sent home by the first truce^boat. A 
thoroughly loyal gentleman, and an unselfish, devoted 
friend, he was induced to go, only by the assurance that 
while he could do no good by remaining, he might be 
of service to us in the North. 

At his departure, he left for me, with Captain Thomas 
P. Turner, commandant of the prison, fifty dollars in 
United States currency. A day or two afterward, Turner 
handed the sum to me in Confederate rags, dollar for 
dollar, asserting that this was the identical money he had 
received. The perpetrator of this petty knavery was 
educated at West Point, and claimed to be a Virginia 
gentleman. 

"Junius" suffered greatl}^ from intermittent fever. 
The weather was torrid. In the roof was a little scuttle, 
to which we ascended by a ladder. The column of air 
rushing up through that narrow aperture was foul, 
suffocating, and hot "as if coming from an oven. At 
night we went out on the roof for two or three hours to 
breathe the out-door atmosphere. When the authorities 
dis(iOvered it, they informed us, through Richard Turner 
— an ex-Baltimorean, half black-leg and half gambler, 
who was inspector of the prison — that if we persisted, 
they would close the scuttle. It was a refined and 
elaborate method of torture. 

On one occasion, this same Turner struck a New 
York captain in the face for courteously protesting 
against being deprived of a little fragment of shell which 
he had brought from the field as a relic. A Rebel 

24 



370 Prisoners Murdered by the Gaurds. [isea 

sergeant inflicted a blow upon another Union captain who 
chanced to be jostled against him by the crowd. 

For slight offenses, officers were placed in an under- 
ground cell so dark and foul, that I saw a Pennsylvania 
lieutenant come out, after five weeks' confinement there, 
his beard so covered with mold that one could pluck a 
double handful from it ! 

Prisoners putting their heads for a moment between 
the bars of the windows, and often for only approaching 
the apertures, were liable to be shot. One officer, stand- 
ing near a window, was ordered by the sentinel to move 
back. The rattling carriages made the command in- 
audible. The guard instantly shot him through the 
head, and he never spoke again. 

Colonel Streight was the most prominent prisoner. 
He talked to the Rebel authorities with imprudent, but 
delightful frankness. More than once I heard him say 
to them : — 

' ' You dare not carry out that threat ! You know 
our Government Avill never permit it, but will promptly 
retaliate upon your own officers, whom it holds." 

When our rations of heavy corn-bread and tainted 
meat grew very short, he addressed a letter to James A. 
Seddon, Confederate Secretary of War, protesting in be- 
half of his brigade, and inquiring whether he designed 
starving prisoners to death ! The Rebels hated him with 
peculiar bitterness. 

The five Richmond dailies helped us greatly in 
filling up the long hours. At daylight an old slave, 
named Ben, would arouse us from our slumbers, shout- 
ing :— 

"Great news in de papers! Great news from de 
Army of Virginny ! Great tallygraphic news from the 
Soafwest!" 

N 



1863.] FOURTH-OF-JULY CELEBRATION INTERRUPTED. 371 

He disbursed Ms sheets at twenty-five cents per copy, 
but they afterward went up to fifty. 

'A lieutenant in Grant's army, while charging one 
of the batteries in the rear of Yicksburg, received a 
shot in the face which entered one eye, destroying it 
altogether. Ten days after, he arrived in Libby, He 
walked about our room with a handkerchief tied around 
Ms head, smoking complacently, apparently considering 
a bullet in the brain a very slight annoyance. 

We attempted to celebrate the Fourth of July. 
Captain DriscoU, of Cincinnati, with other ingenious 
officers, had manufactured from shirts a National flag, 
which was hung above the head of Colonel Streight, 
who occupied the chair, or rather the bed, which neces- 
sity substituted. Two or three speeches had been made, 
and several hours of oratory were expected, when a 
sergeant came up and said : — 

" Captain Turner orders that you stop this furse !" 

Observing the flag, he called upon several officers to 
assist him in taking it down. Of course, none did so. 
He finally reached it himself, tore it down, and bore it 
to the prison office. A long discussion ensued about 
obeying Turner' s order. After nearly as much time had 
been consumed in debate as it would have required 
to carry out the programme, and speak to all the toasts 
— dry toasts — it was voted to comply. So the meeting, 
first adopting a number of intensely patriotic resolutions, 
incontinently adjourned. 

The Rebel authorities confiscated large sums of money 
sent from home to the prisoners, and sometimes stopped 
the purchase of supplies, asserting that it was done in 
retaliation for similar treatment of their own soldiers 
confined in the ISTorth. Still our officers fared incom- 
parably better than the Union privates who were half 



372 The Horrors of Belle Isle. [ises. 

starved upon Belle Isle, in sight of our prison. We did 
not fully accredit the reports which reached us touching 
the sufferings of these prisoners, though the engravings 
of their emaciation and tortures in the New York illus- 
trated papers, which sometimes drifted to us, so enraged 
the Eebels, that we often called their attention to them. 
But our own paroled officers, who were permitted to 
distribute among the privates clothing sent by our Gov- 
ernment, assured us that they were substantially true. 



1863.J The Captains Ordered Below. 373 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil 
Would not infect his reason ? 

Tempest. 

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, 
But in battalions. 

Hamxjt. 

On the 6th of July, an order came to onr apartments 
for all the captains to go down into a lower room. At 
this time, as nsnal, there was constant talk ahont resum- 
ing the exchange. They went below with light hearts, 
supposing they were about to be paroled and sent 
N'orth. Half an hour after, when the first one returned, 
his white, haggard face showed that he had been through 
a trying scene. 

After being drawn up in line, they were required to 
draw lots, to select two of their number for execution, in 
retaliation for two Eebel officers, tried and shot in Ken- 
tucky by Burnside, for recruiting within our lines. 

The unhappy designation fell upon Captain Sawyer, 
of the First New Jersey Cavalry, and Captain Flynn, of 
the Fifty-first Indiana Infantry. They were taken to the 
office of General Winder, who assured them that the 
sentence would be carried out ; and without pity or de- 
cency, selected that hour to revile them, as Yankee 
scoundrels who had " come down here to kill our sons, 
burn our houses, and devastate our country." In reply 
to these taunts, they bore themselves with dignity and 
calmness. 

"When I went into the war," responded Flynn, ''1 



374 Two Selected for Execution. [ises. 

knew I might Ibe killed. I don't know but I would just 
as soon die in this way as any other." 

"I have a wife and child," said Sawyer, "who are 
very dear to me, hut if I had a hundred lives I would 
gladly give them all for my country." 

In two hours they came hack to their quarters. 
Sawyer was externally nervous ; Flynn calm. Both 
expected that the order would be carried out. We were 
confident that it would not. I predicted to Sawyer — 

" They will never dare to shoot you ! " 

"I will bet you a hundred dollars they do !" was his 
impulsive reply. I said to Flynn — 

" There is not one chance in ten of their executing 
you." 

"I know it," he answered. "But, when we drew 
lots, I took one chance in thirty-five, and then lost ! "* 

On the same evening came intelligence that, at an ob- 
scure town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg, Meade 
had received a Waterloo defeat, was flying in confusion 
to the mountains of Pennsylvania after losing forty 
thousand prisoners, who were actually on their way to 
Richmond. It was entertaining to read the speculations 
of the Rebel papers as to what they could do with these 
forty thousand Yankees — where they could find men to 
guard them, and room for them — how in the world they 
could feed them Avithout starving the people of Rich- 
mond. 

* Our Grovemment, upon learning of this, ordered the commandant at 
Portress Monroe, the moment he should learn, officially or otherwise, that Saw- 
yer and Flynn had been executed, to shoot in retaliation two Rebel officers — 
sons of Generals Lee and Winder. On the reception of this news in the Rich- 
mond papers at daylight one morning," the prisoners cheered and shouted with 
delight. As they supposed, that settled the question. Nothing more was 
heard about executing our officers ; and soon after. Sawyer and Flynn were ex- 
changed, months before their less fortunate comrades. 



1863.] The Gloomiest Night in Prison. 375 

We did not fully "believe the report, but it touched 
ns very nearly. Those reverses to our army came home 
drearily to the hearts of men who were waiting hope- 
lessly in Rebel prisons, and weighed them down like 
millstones. 

Success kindled a corresponding joy. I have seen 
sick and dying prisoners on cold and filthy floors of 
the wretched hospitals filled with a new vitality— their 
sad, pleading eyes lighted with a new hope, their wan 
faces flushed, and their speech jubilant, when they 
learned that all was going well with the Cause, It made 
life more endurable and death less bitter. 

Already suffering from anxiety for Flynn and Saw- 
yer, and disheartened by the reports from Pennsylvania, 
we received intelligence that Grant had been utterly 
repulsed before the works of Yicksburg, the siege raised, 
and the campaign closed in defeat and disaster. It was 
a very black night when this grief was added to the first. 
The prison was gloomy and silent many hours earlier 
than nsual. Our hearts were too heavy for speech. 

But suddenly there came a great revulsion. Among 
the negro prisoners was an old man of seventy, who 
had particularly attraced my attention from the fact that 
when I happened to speak to him about the National 
conflict, he replied, after the manner of Copperheads, that 
it was a speculators' war on both sides, in which he felt 
no sort of interest ; that it would do nobody any good ; 
that he cared not when or how it ended. I wondered 
whether the old African was shamming, lest his conversa- 
tion should be reported, to the curtailing of his privi- 
leges, or whether he was really that anomaly, a black man 
who felt no interest in the war. 

But about five o'clock, one afternoon, he came up 
into our room^ and, when the door was closed behind 



376 Glorious Hevulsion of Feeling. [ises. 

him, so that he could not be seen by the officers or 
guards, he made a rush for an open space upon the floor, 
and immediately began to dance in a manner very re- 
markable for a man of seventy, and rheumatic at that. 
We all gathered around him and asked — 

"General" (that was his soubriquet in the prison), 
"what does this mean ? " 

" De Yankees has taken Yicksburg ! De Yankees has 
taken Yicksburg ! " and then he began to dance again. 

As soon as we could calm him into a little coherence, 
he drew from his pocket a newspaper extra— -the ink not 
yet dry — which he had stolen from one of the Rebel offi- 
cers. There it was ! The Yankees liacl taken Yicksburg, 
with more than thirty thousand prisoners. 

Good tidings, like bad, seldom come alone. Shortly af- 
ter, we learned that there was also a slight mistake about 
Gettysburg — that Lee, instead of Meade, was flying in 
confusion ; and that, while our people had captured fif- 
teen or twenty thousand Rebels, those forty thousand 
Yankee prisoners were " conspicuous for their absence." 

How our hearts leaped up at this cheering news ! 
How suddenly that foul prison air grew sweet and pure 
as the fragrant breath of the mountains ! There was 
laughing, there was singing, there was dancing, which 
the old negro did not altogether monopolize. Some one 
shouted, " Glory, hallelujah ! " Mr. McCabe, an Ohio 
chaplain, whose clear, ringing tones, as he led the sing- 
ing, cheered many of our heaviest hours, instantly took 
the hint, and started that beautiful hymn, by Mrs. Howe, 
of which " Glory, hallelujah" is the chorus : — 

"For mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." 

Every voice in the room joined in it. I never saw men 
more stirred and thrilled than were those three or four 



1863.] Exciting Discussion in Prison. 377 

hundred prisoners, as they heard the impressiye closing 
stanza : — 

" In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was hofn across the sea, 
"With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me ; 
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free !" 

Despite reading, conversing, and cutting out finger- 
rings, napkin-rings, breast-pins, and crosses, from the 
"beef-bones extracted from our rations, in which some 
prisoners were exceedingly skillful, the hours were very 
heavy. A debating-club was formed, and much time was 
spent in discussing animal magnetism and other topics. 
Occasionally we had mock courts, which developed a 
good deal of originality and wit. 

Late in July, a mania for study began to prevail. 
Classes were formed in Greek, Latin, German, French, 
Spanish, Algebra, Geometry, and Rhetoric. We sent 
out to the Richmond stores for text- books, and all 
found instructors, as the motley company of officers 
embraced natives of every civilized country. 

July 30th was a memorable day. The prisoners 
had become greatly excited on the momentous question 
of small messes versus large messes. There were only 
three cooking-stoves for the accommodation of three 
hundred and seventy-five officers. A majority thought 
it more convenient to divide into messes of twenty, while 
others, favoring small messes of from four to eight each, 
determined to retain those organizations. The prisoners 
now occupied five rooms, communicating with each other. 

A public meeting was called in our apartment, with 
Colonel Streight in the chair. A fiery discussion en- 
sued. The large-mess party insisted that the majority 
must rule, and the minority submit to be formed into 
messes of twenty. The small-mess party replied : — 



378 Stealing Money from the Captives. [isgs. 

" We will not be coerced. We are one-third of all 
the prisoners. We insist upon our right to one-third 
of the kitchen, one-third of the fuel, and one of the 
three cooking-stoves. It is nobody's business but our 
own whether we have messes of two or one hundred."' 

I was never present at any debate, parliamentary, 
political, or religious, which developed more earnestness 
and bitterness. The meeting passed a resolution, insist- 
ing upon large messes ; the small-mess party refused 
to vote upon it, and declared that they would never, 
never submit ! The question was finally decided by 
permitting all to do exactly as they pleased. '* 

Prisoners kept in the underground cells heard revolt- 
ing stories. They were infornled by the guards that the 
bodies of the dead, usually left in an adjoining room for 
a day or two before burial, were frequently eaten by rats. 

From want of vegetables and variety of diet, scurvy 
became common. With many others, I suffered some- 
what from it. On the 13th of August, Major Morris, 
of the Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry, died suddenly 
from a malignant form of this disease. His fellow- 
prisoners desired to have his body embalmed. The 
Kebel authorities had one hundred dollars in United 
States currency, belonging to the major, but they refused 
to apply it to this purpose. Four hundred dollars in 
Confederate currency was therefore subscribed by the 
prisoners. Several brother-officers of the deceased were 
permitted to follow the remains to the cemetery. 

Thirty or forty Northern citizens were confined in a 
room under us. They Avere thrust in with Yankee de- 
serters of the worst character, and treated with the great- 
est barbarity. Their rations were very short ; they 
were allowed to purchase nothing. We cut a hole 
through the floor, and every evening dropped down 



1863.] Horrible Treatment op Northern Citizens. 379 

crackers and bread, contributed from the various messes. 
When they saw the food coming, they would crowd 
beneath the aperture, with upturned faces and eager 
eyes, springing to clutch every crumb, sometimes ready 
to fight over the smallest morsels, and looking more like 
ravenous animals than human beings. Some of them, ac- 
customed to luxury at home, ate water-melon rinds and 
devoured morsels, which they extracted from the spit- 
toons and from other places still more revolting. 

Several schemes of escape were ingenious and original. 
Impudence was the trump card. Four or five officers 
took French leave, by procuring Confederate uniforms, 
which enabled them to pass the guards. Captain John 
F. Porter, of New York, obtaining a citizen' s suit, walked 
out of the prison in broad daylight, passing all the senti- 
nels, who supposed him to be a clergyman or some other 
pacific resident of Richmond. A lady in the city secreted 
him. By the negroes, he sent a message to his late com- 
rades, asking for money, which they immediately trans- 
mitted. Obtaining a pilot, he made his way through the 
swamps to the Union lines, in season to claim, on the ap- 
pointed day, the hand of a young lady who awaited him 
at home. He was an enterprising bridegroom. 

During the long evenings, when we were faint, 
bilious, and weak from our thin diet, some of my com- 
rades, with morbid eloquence, would dwell upon all 
luxuries that tempt the epicurean palate, — debating, in 
detail, what dishes they would order, were they at the 
best hotels of New York or Philadelphia. These tan- 
talizing discussions were so annoying that they invariably 
drove me from the group, sometimes exciting a desire to 
strike those who loould drag forward the unpleasant 
subject, and keep me reminded of the hunger which I 
was strivin": to for";et. 



380 Extravagant Rumoes among the Prisoners, [ises. 

The exchange was altogether suspended, and new 
prisoners were constantly arriving, until lAbhy contained 
several hundred officers. 

Extravagant rumors of all sorts were constantly afloat 
among the captives ; hardly a day passing without some 
sensation story. They were not usually pure invention \ 
but in prison, as elsewhere during exciting periods, the 
air seemed to generate wild reports, which, in passing 
from mouth to mouth, grew to wonderful proportions. 



[1863. Transfeered TO Castle Thunder. 381 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

I had rather than forty pound I were at home. 

— Twelfth Night, ob What Yorr "Wilu 

On the evening of September 2d, all the northern 
citizens were transferred from Libby to Castle Thunder. 
The open air caused a strange sensation of faintness. 
We grew weak and dizzy in walking the three hundred 
yards between the prisons. 

That night we were thrust into an unventilated, 
filthy, subterranean room, nearly as loathsome as the 
Yicksburg jail. But we smoked our pipes serenely, 
remembering that "Fortune is turning, and inconstant, 
and variations, and mutabilities," and wondering what 
that capricious lady would next decree. At inter- 
vals, our sleep upon the dirty floor was disturbed by 
the playful gambols of the rats over our hands and 
faces. 

The next morning we were drawn up in line, and our 
names registered by an old warden named Cooper, who, 
in spectacles and faded silk hat, looked like one of 
Dickens's beadles. His query whether we possessed 
moneys, was uniformly answered in the negative. 
"When he asked if we had knives or concealed weapons, 
all gave the same response, except one waggish pris- 
oner, who averred that he had a ten-inch columbiad in 
his vest pocket. 

The Commandant of Castle Thunder was Captain 
George W. Alexander, an ex-Marylander, who had par- 



382 More Endurable than Libby. [isgs. 

ticipated witli "the French Lady"* in the capture of 
the steamer St. Nicholas, near Point Lookout, and was 
afterward confined for some months at Fort McHenry. 
He formerly belonged to the United States Navy, in the 
capacity of assistant engineer. He made literary pre- 
tensions, writing thin plays for the Richmond theaters, 
and sorry Rebel war-ballads. Pompous and exces- 
sively vain, delighting in gauntlets, top-boots, huge 
revolvers, and a red sash, he was sometimes furiously 
angry, but, in the main, kind to captives. He caused 
us to be placed in the "Citizens' Room," which he 
called tlie prison parlor. Its walls were whitewashed, 
its four windows were iron-barred, its air tainted by 
exhalations from the adjoining "Condemned Cell," 
which Avas fearfully foul. It was lighted with gas, and 
had a single stove for cooking, a few bunks, and a clean 
floor. 

Castle Thunder contained about fifteen hundred 
inmates — northern citizens, southern Unionists, Yankee 
deserters. Confederate convicts, and eighty-two free 
negroes, captured with Federal officers, who employed 
them as servants in the field. 

The prison' s reputation was worse than that of Lib- 
by ; but, as usual, we found the devil not quite so black 
as he was painted. We missed sadly the society of the 
Union officers, but the Commandant and attaclies^ unlike 
the Turners, treated us courteously, never indulging in 
epithets and insults. 

In the Citizens' Room were two northerners, named 

* Captain Thomas, in the character of a French lady, took passage on 
the steamer at Baltimore, with several followers disguised as mechanics. 
Near Point Lookout they overpowered the crew and captured the vessel, 
convertuig her into a privateer. Afterward, while attempting to repeat 
the enterprise, they were made prisoners. 



1863.] Determined not to Die. 383 

Lewis and Scully, sent to Riclimond in the secret ser- 
vice of our Government, "by General Scott, before the 
battle of Bull Ran, and confined ever since. One of 
them was a Catholic, through the influence of whose 
priest both had thus far been preserved. But they held 
existence by a frail tenure, and I could not wonder that 
long anxiety had turned Lewis' s hair gray, and given to 
both nervous, haggard faces. . 

In all southern prisons I was forced to admire the 
fidelity with which the Roman Church looks after its 
members. Priests frequently visited all places of con- 
finement to inquire for Catholics, and minister both to 
their spiritual and bodily needs. The chaplain at Castle 
Thunder was a Presbyterian. He scattered documents, 
and preached every Sunday in the yard or one of the 
large rooms. He would have given tracts on the sin of 
dancing to men without any legs. 

The Rev. William G. Scandlin and Dr. McDonald, of 
Boston — agents of the United States Sanitary Commis- 
sion — were held with us. The doctor was dangerously 
ill from dysentery. The Commission had never discrim- 
inated between suffering Unionists and Confederates, 
extending to both the same bounty and tenderness ; yet 
the Rebels kept these gentlemen, whom they had cap- 
tured on the way to Harper' s Ferry with sanitary sup- 
plies, for more than three months. 

"Junius" was very feeble; but during the weary 
months which followed, he manifested wonderful vital- 
ity. His indignation toward the enemy, and his earnest 
determination not to die in a Rebel prison, greatly 
helped his endurance. Like the Duchess of Marlboro', 
he refused either to be bled or to give up the ghost. 

A Virginia citizen was brought in on the charge of 
attempting to trade in "greenbacks," — a penitentiary 



384 A Negro Cruelly Whipped. [ises. 

offense under Confederate law. Before lie liad been in 
our room five minutes one of the sub-wardens entered, 
asking : 

"Is there anybody here who has 'greenbacks?' 
I am paying four dollars for one to-day." 

The negroes were used for scrubbing and carrying 
messages from the office of the prison to the different 
apartments. Invariably our friends, they surreptitiously 
conveyed notes to acquaintances in the other rooms, and 
often to Unionists outside. 

While we were at Libby, an intelligent mulatto 
prisoner from Philadelphia was whipped for some trivial 
offense. His piercing shrieks followed each application 
of the lash ; one of my messmates, who counted them, 
stated that he received three hundred and twenty-seven 
blows. A month afterward I examined his back, and 
found it still gridironed with scars. 

At the Castle the negroes frequently received from 
five to twenty-five lashes. I saw boys not more than 
eight years old turned over a barrel and cowhided. 
One woman upward of sixty was whipped in the same 
manner. This negress was known as "Old Sally;" she 
earned a good deal of Confederate money by washing 
for prisoners, and spent nearly the whole of it in pur- 
chasing supplies for unfortunates who were without 
means. She had been confined in different prisons for 
nearly three years. 

The next oldest inmate was a Little Dorrit of a cur, 
born and raised in the Castle. Notwithstanding her 
life-long associations, she manifested the usual canine 
antipathy toward negroes and tatterdemalions. 

Soon after our arrival, Spencer Kellogg, of Philadel- 
phia, one of our fellow-prisoners, was executed as a 
Yankee spy. He had been in the secret service of the 



1863.] The Execution of Spencer Kellogg. 385 

United States, but belonged to the western navy at tlie 
time of his capture. He bore himself with great cool- 
ness and self-possession, assuring the Rebels that he was 
glad to die for his country. On the scaffold he did not 
manifest the slightest tremor. While the rope was being 
adjusted, he accidentally knocked off the hat of a 
bystander, to whom he turned and said, with great 
suavity : "I beg your pardon, sir." 

The loyalty of the southern Unionists was intense. 
One Tennessean, whose hair was white with age, was 
taken before Major Carrington, the Provost- Marshal, 
who said to him : 

"You are so old that I have concluded to send you 
home, if you will take the oath." 

"Sir," replied the prisoner, "if you knew me per- 
sonally, I should think you meant to insult me. I have 
lived seventy years, and, God helping me, I will not now 
do an act to embitter the short remnant of my life, and 
one which I should regret through eternity. I have four 
boys in the Union army ; they all went there by my ad- 
vice. Were I young enough to carry a musket I would 
be with them to-day fighting against the Rebellion." 

The sturdy old Loyalist at last died in prison. 

There were many kindred cases. Nearly all the 
men of this class confined with us were from mountain 
regions of the South. Many were ragged, all were 
poor. They very seldom heard from their families. 
They were compelled to live solely upon the prison 
rations, often a perpetual compromise with starvation. 
Some had been in confinement for two or three years, 
and their homes desolated and burned. Unlike the 
IN'orth, they knew what war meant. 

Yet the lamp of their loyalty burned with inextin- 
guishable brightness. They never denounced the Gov- 

25 



386 Steadfastness of Southern Unionists. [ises. 

ernment, wMcli sometimes neglected tliem to a criminal 
degree. They never desponded, through, the gloomiest 
days, when imbecility in the Cabinet and timidity in the 
field threatened to ruin the Union Cause. They seldom 
yielded an iota of principle to their keepers. Hungry, 
cold, and naked — waiting, waiting, waiting, through the 
slow months and years — often sick, often dying, they 
continued true as steel. History has few such records of 
steadfast devotion. Greet it reverently with uncovered 
head, as the Holy of Holies in our temple of Patriotism ! 



18G3.] A Waggish Journalist. 387 



CHAPTER XXX ly. 



-One fading moment's mirth, 



With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights. 

— Two Gentlemen of Vbeona. 



We consumed many of the long hours in convers- 
ing, reading, and whist-playing. Mght after night we 
strolled wearily up and down our narrow room, igno- 
rant of the outer world, save through glimpses, caught 
from the barred windows, of the clear blue sky and the 
pitying stars. 

Still, endeavoring to make the best of it, we were 
often mirthful and boisterous. Two correspondents of 
The Herald^ Mr. S. T. Bulkley and Mr. L. A. Hendrick, 
were partners in our captivity. Hendrick' s irrepressible 
waggery never slept. One evening a Virginia ruralist, 
whose intellect was not of the brightest, was brought in 
for some violation of Confederate law. After pouring 
his sorrows into the sympathetic ear of the correspond- 
ent, he suddenly asked : 

"What are you here for ?" 

"I am the victim," replied Hendrick, "of gross and 
flagrant injustice. I am the inventor of a new piece of 
artillery known as the Hendrick gun. Its range far ex- 
ceeds every other cannon in the world. A week ago I 
was testing it from the Richmond defenses, where it is 
mounted. One of its shots accidentally struck and sunk 
a blockade runner just entering the port of Wilmington, 
It was not my fault. I didn't aim at the steamer. I was 
just trying the gun for the benefit of the country. But 



388 PROCEEDINGS OF A MoCK CoURT. [1863. 

these confounded Riclimond authorities insisted upon it 
that I should pay for the vessel. I told them I would 

see them first, and they shut me up in Castle 

Thunder ; but I never will pay in the world." 

" You are quite right. I would not, if I were you," 
rephed the innocent Virginian. "It is the greatest out- 
rage I ever heard of." 

A fellow-prisoner had been elected commissary of our 
room, to divide and distribute the rations. One evening 
a court was organized to try him for "malfeasance in 
office." The indictment charged that he issued soup 
only when he ought to issue meat — stealing the beef and 
selling it for his personal benefit. One correspondent 
appeared as prosecuting attorney, another as counsel 
for the defense, and a third as presiding judge. 

An extract from a Richmond journal being objected 
to as testimony, it was decided that any thing published 
by any newspaper must necessarily be true, and was 
competent evidence in that court. A great deal of re- 
markable law was cited in Greek, Latin, German, and 
French. Counsel were fined for contempt of court, 
jurors placed under arrest for going to sleep. When the 
spectators became boisterous, the sheriff was ordered to 
clear the court-room, and, during certain testimony, the 
judge requested that the ladies withdraw. 

The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and, after being 
harangued in touching terms upon the enormity of his 
offense, the culprit was sentenced to eat a quart of his 
own soup at a single meal. It was an hilarious affair for 
that loathsome place, which swarmed with vermin, and 
where the silence was broken nightly by the clanking 
and rattling of the chains of convicts. 

Many prison inmates exhibited daring and ingenuity 
in attempting to escape. Castle Thunder was vigilantly 



1863.] Escape by Killing a Guard. 389 

and secnrelj guarded, witli a score of sentinels inside, 
and a cordon of sentinels without. 

In the condemned cell adjoining our room was a 
Rebel officer named Booth, with three comrades, under 
sentence of death on charge of murder. All were 
heavily ironed. Mghtly, as the time appointed for their 
execution approached, they surprised us by dancing, 
rattling their chains, and singing. At one o' clock on the 
morning of October 22d, we were awakened by shouts 
and musket-shots. The whole Castle was alarmed, and 
the guard turned out. 

With a saw made from a case-knife. Booth had cut 
a hole through the floor of his cell, his comrades the 
while singing and dancing to drown the noise. They 
were compelled to be very cautious, as a sentinel 
paced within six feet of them, under instructions to 
watch them closely. Filing off their irons, they descend- 
ed cautiously through the aperture into a store-room, 
where they found four muskets. In the darkness they re- 
moved the lock from the door, and each taking a gun, 
crept into another room opening to the street ; struck 
down the sentinel, and felled a second with the butt of 
a musket, knocking him ten or twelve feet. At the 
outer door, a guard, who had taken the alarm, presented 
his gun. Before he could fire. Booth shot him fatally 
through the head. 

The three late prisoners ran up the street, several in- 
effectual shots being fired after them by the guards, who 
dared not leave their posts. At the long bridge across 
the James River they knocked down another sentinel, 
who attempted to stop them. Traveling by night through 
the woods, they soon reached the Union lines. 

A considerable number of prisoners smeared their 
faces with croton-oil to produce eruptions. The surgeon, 



890 Escape by Playing Negeo. [ises. 

called in at exactly the right stage, prononnced the disease 
small-pox. Thej were driven toward the small-pox hos- 
pital in iingnarded ambulances, from which they jumped 
and ran for their liyes. It was a profound mystery to 
the physician that patients should be so agile, until, 
examining one face after the eruptions began to subside, 
he detected the imposition. 

In Tennessee two Indiana captains were found with- 
in the Rebel lines. They were actually in the secret 
service of the Government, reconnoitering Confederate 
camps ; but they passed themselves off as deserters, and 
were brought to the Castle. One told me his story, ad- 
ding : ' 

' ' They offer to release us if we will take the oath of 
allegiance to the Southern Confederacy ; but I cannot do 
that. I want to rejoin my regiment, and fight the Rebels 
while the war lasts. I must escape, and I cannot afford 
to lose any time." 

He Kept his own counsel ; but the next night took up 
a plank and descended to a subterranean room, whence 
he began digging a tunnel. After several nights' labor, 
when almost completed, the tunnel was discovered by 
the prison authorities. He immediately commenced 
another. That also was found, a few hours before 
it would have proved a success. Then he tried the cro- 
ton-oil, and in ten days he was again under the old flag. 

One prisoner, procuring from the negroes a suit of old 
clothing, a slouched hat, and a piece of burnt cork, 
assumed the garments, and blackened his face. With- 
a bucket in his hand, he followed the negroes down 
three flights of stairs and past four sentinels. Hiding in 
the negro quarters until after dark, he then leaped from 
a window in the very face of a sentinel, but disappeared 
around a corner before the soldier could fire. 



1863.] Escape by Forging a Release. 391 

Another was sent to Greneral Winder' s office for exami- 
nation. On the way he told his stolid guard that he was 
clerk of the Castle, and ordered him : 

" Go np this street to the next corner and wait there 
for me. I am compelled to visit the Provost-Marshal' s 
office. Be sure and wait. I will meet you in fifteen min- 
utes." 

The unsuspecting guard oheyed the order, and the 
prisoner leisurely walked off. 

Captain Lafayette Jones, of Carter County, Tennessee, 
was held on the charge of bushwhacking and recruiting 
for the Federal army within the Rebel lines. If brought 
to trial, he would undoubtedly have been convicted and 
shot. He succeeded in deluding the officers of the 
prison about his own identity, and was released upon 
enlisting in the Rebel army, under the name of Leander 
Johannes. 

George W. Hudson, of N"ew York, had been caught 
in Louisiana, while acting as a spy in the Union service. 
Returning to the prison from a preliminary examination 
before General Winder, he said : 

" They have found all my papers, which were sewn 
in the lining of my valise. There is evidence enough to 
hang me twenty times over. I have no hope unless I 
can escape." 

He canvassed a number of plans, at last deciding 
upon one. Then he remarked, with great nonchalance : 

"Well, I am not quite ready yet ; I must send out to 
buy a valise and get my clothes washed, so that I can 
leave in good shape." 

Three or four days later, having completed these 
arrangements, he wrote an order for his own discharge, 
forging General Winder's signature. It was a close 
Imitation of Winders genuine papers upon which 



392 Escaped Prisoner at Jeff. Davis's Levee, [ises. 

prisoners were discharged daily. Hudson employed a 
negro to leave this document, unobserved, upon the 
desk of the prison Adjutant. Just then I was confined 
in a cell for an attempt to escape. One morning some one 
tapped at my door ; looking out through the little aper- 
ture, I saw Hudson, valise in hand, with the warden 
behind him. 

"I have come to say good-by. My discharge has 
arrived." (In a whisper,) "Put your ear up here. My 
plan is working to a charm. It is the prettiest thing 
you ever saw." 

He bade me adieu, conversed a few minutes with the 
prison officers, and walked leisurely up the street. A 
Union lady sheltered him, and when the Rebels next 
heard of Hudson he was with the Army of the Potomac, 
serving upon the staff of General Meade. 

Robert Slocum, of the Nineteenth Massachusetts 
Volunteers, was taken to Richmond as a prisoner of war. 
In two days he escaped, and procured, from friendly 
negroes, citizen's clothmg. Then passing himself, off as 
an Englishman recently arrived in America by a block- 
ade-runner, he attempted to leave the port of Wilmington 
for Nassau. Through some informality in his passport, 
he was arrested and lodged in Castle Thunder. Employ- 
ing an attorney, he secured his release. Still adhering 
to the original story, he remained in Richmond for many 
months. He frequently sent us letters, supplies, and 
provisions, and made many attempts to aid us in esca- 
ping. One day he wrote me an entertaining description 
of President Davis's levee, at which he had spent th© 
previous evening. 



1863.] Assistance from a Negro Boy. 393 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

Misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fcllows. 



Several days of our confinement in Castle Thnn- 
der were spent in a little cell with burglars, thieves, 
"bounty-jumpers," and confidence men. Our associa- 
tion with these strange companions happened in this 
wise: 

One day we completed an arrangement with a cor- 
poral of the guard, by which, with the aid of four of his 
men, he was to let us out at midnight. We had a friend 
in Richmond, but did not know precisely where his 
house was situated. We were very anxious to learn, and 
fortunately, on this very day, he sent a meal to a prisoner 
in our room. Recognizing the plate, I asked the intelli- 
gent young Baltimore negro who brought it : 

" Is my friend waiting below ? " 

"Yes, sir." 

" Can't you get me an opportunity to see him for one 
moment?" 

"I think so, sir. Come with me and we will 
try." 

The boy led me through the passages and down the 
stairs, past four guards, who supposed that he had been 
sent by the prison authorities. As we reached the lower 
floor, I saw my friend standing in the street door, with 
two officers of the prison beside him. By a look I beck- 
oned him. He walked toward me and I toward him, 



394 The Prison Officers Enraged. [ises. 

nntil we met at tlie little railing wliicli separated us. 
There, over the l)ayonet of the sentinel, this whispered 
conversation followed : 

" We hope to get out to-night ; can we find refuge in 
your house ?" 

" Certainly. At what hour will you come ?" 

" We hope, between twelve and one o'clock. Where 
is your place V ' 

He told me the street and numher. By this time, the 
Rebel officers, discovering what was going on, grew in- 
dignant and very profane. They peremptorily ordered 
my friend into the street. He went out wearing a look of 
mild and injured innocence. The negro had shrewdly 
slipped out of sight the moment he brought us together, 
and thus escaped severe punishment. 

The officers ordered me back to my quarters, and as I 
went up the stairs, I heard a volley of oaths. They were 
not especially incensed at me, recognizing the fact tha^t a 
prisoner under guard has a right to do any thing he can ; 
but were indignant and chagrined at that want of discipline 
which permitted an inmate of the safest apartment in the 
Castle to pass four sentinels to the street door, and con- 
verse with an unauthorized person. 

Ten minutes after, a boy came up from the office, 
with the message— this time genuine — that another visitor 
wished to see me. I went down, and there, immediately 
beyond the bars through which we were allowed to com- 
municate with outsiders, I saw a lady who called me by 
name. I did not recognize her, but her eyes told me that 
she was a friend. A Rebel officer was standing near, to 
see that no improper communication passed between us. 
She conversed upon indifferent subjects, but soon found 
opportunity for saying : 

" I am the wife of your friend who has just left you. 



1863.] Visit from a Friendly Woman. 395 

He dared not come again. I sncceeded in obtaining ad- 
mission. I have a note for you. I cannot give it to you 
now, for this officer is looking ; but, when I "bid you 
good-by, I will slip it into your hand." 

The letter contained the wannest protestations of 
friendship, saying: 

"We will do any thing in the world for you. You 
shall have shelter at our house, or, if you think that too 
public, at any house you choose among our friends. 
We will find you the best pilot in Kichmond to take you 
through the lines. We will give you clothing, We will 
give you money — every thing you need. If you wish, 
we will send a half dozen young men to steal up in front 
of the Castle at midnight ; and, for a moment, to throw a 
blanket over the head of each of the sentinels who stand 
beside the door." 

At one o'clock that night, the Rebel corporal came to 
our door and said, softly : 

"All things are ready; I have my four men at the 
proper posts ; we can pass you to the street without diffi- 
culty. Should you meet any pickets beyond, the coun- 
tersign for to-night is ' Shiloh.' I know you all, and im- 
plicitly trust you ; but some of my men do not, and be- 
fore passing out your party of six, they want to see that 
you have in your possession the money you propose to 
give us" (seventy dollars in United States currency, to- 
gether with two gold watches). 

This request was reasonable, and Bulkley handed his 
portion of the money to the corporal. A moment later 
he returned with it from the gas-light, and said : 

"There is a mistake about this. Here are five one- 
dollar notes, not five-dollar notes." 

My friend was very confident there was no error ; and 
we were forced to the conclusion that the guards de= 



396 Shut up in a Cell. [i863. 

signed to olbtain our money withont giving ns our lib- 
erty. So tlie plan was baffled. 

The next morning proved that the corporal was right. 
My friend Tiad offered him the wrong roll of notes. 
We hoped very shortly to try again, but considerable 
finessing was required to get the right sentinels upon the 
right posts. Before it could be done we were placed in a 
dungeon, on the charge of attempting to escape. We 
were kept there ten days. 

Our fellows in confinement were the burglars and con- 
fidence men — "lewd fellows of the baser sort," without 
principle or refinement, living by their wits. They 
frankly related many of their experiences in enlisting and 
re-enlisting for large bounties as substitutes in the Rebel 
service ; decoying negroes from their masters, and then 
selling them ; stealing horses, etc. But they treated us 
with personal courtesy, and though their own rations were 
wretchedly short, never molested our dried beef, hams, 
and other provisions, which any night they could safely 
have purloined. 

Small-pox was very prevalent during the -winter 
months. An Illinois prisoner, named Putman, had a re- 
markable experience. He was first vaccinated, and two 
or three days after, attacked with varioloid. Just as he 
recovered from that, he was taken with malignant small- 
pox, while the vaccine matter was still working in his 
arm, which was almost an unbroken sore from elbow to 
shoulder. In a few weeks he returned to the prison with 
pits all over his face as large as peas. Small-pox patients 
were sometimes kept in our close room for two or three 
days after the eruptions appeared. One of my own mess- 
mates barely survived this disease. 

We were allowed to purchase whatever supplies the 
Kichmond market afforded, and to have our meals pre- 



1863.] Stealing from Flag-of-Truce Letters. 397 

pared in the prison kitchen, Ibj paying the old negro who 
presided there. These were privileges enjoyed loj none 
of the other inmates. Supplies commanded very high 
prices ; it was a favorite jest in the city, that the people 
had to carry money in their baskets and bring home mar- 
keting in their porte-monnaies. Our mess consisted of the 
four correspondents and Mr. Charles Thompson, a citizen 
of Connecticut, whose Democratic proclivities, age, and 
gravity, invariably elected him spokesman when we 
wished to communicate with the prison authorities. As 
they regarded us with special hostility, we kept in the 
back-ground ; but Mr. Thompson' s quiet tenacity, which 
no refusal could dishearten, and the "greenbacks" which 
no attache could resist, secured us many favors. 

I^orthern letters from our own families reached us 
with considerable regularity. Those sent by other per- 
sons were mostly withheld. Robert Ould, the Rebel 
Commissioner of Exchange, with petty malignity, never 
permitted one of the many written from The Tribune 
office to reach us. All inclosures, excepting money, and 
sometimes including it, were stolen with uniform consis- 
tency. I finally wrote upon one of my missives, which 
was to go North : 

" Will the person wlio systematically abstracts newspaper slips, 
babies' pictures, and postage-stamps from my letters, permit the in- 
closed little poem to reach its destination, unless entirely certain that 
it is contraband and dangerous to the public service ?" 

Apparently a little ashamed, the Rebel censor there- 
after ceased his peculations. 

For a time, boxes of supplies from the l^orth were for- 
warded to us with fidelity and promptness. Supposing 
that this could not last long, we determined to make hay 
while the sun shone. One day, dining from the contents 



398 Paroles Repudiated by the Rebels. [ises. 

of a home box, in cutting througli the Ibutter, my knife 
struck something hard. We sounded, and "brought to 
the surface a little phial, hermetically sealed. We 
opened it, and there found ''greenbacks !" 

Upon that hint we acted. While it was impossible to 
obtain letters from the N'orth, we could always smuggle 
them thither by exchanged prisoners, who would sew 
them up in their clothing, or in some other manner con- 
ceal them. We immediately began to send many orders 
for boxes ; ail but two or three came safely to hand, 
and "brought forth butter in a lordly dish." Treasury 
notes were also sent bound in covers of books so deftly 
as to defy detection. One of my messmates thus received 
two hundred and fifty dollars in a single Bible. The 
supplies of money, obtained in this manner, lasted 
through nearly all our remaining imprisonment, and 
were of infinite service. 

All the prisoners who were taken to Richmond with 
us had received identically the same paroles. In every 
case, except ours, the Rebels recognized the paroles, and 
sent the persons holding them through the lines. But 
they utterly disregarded ours. We felt it a sort of duty 
to keep them occasionally reminded of their solemn, deli- 
berate, written obligation to us. We first did this 
through our attorney, General Humphrey Marshall, of 
Kentucky. His relations with Robert Ould were very 
close. Upon receiving heavy fees in United States cur- 
rency, he had secured the release of several citizens, after 
all other endeavors failed. The prisoners believed that 
Ould shared the fees. 

General Marshall made a strong statement of our case 
in writing, adding to the application for release : 

" I am instructed by tl^ese gentlemen not to ast any favors at your 



1863] Sentenced to the Salisbury Prison. 399 

hands, but to enforce their clear, legal, unquestionable rights under this 
parole." 

Commissioner Ould indorsed upon this application 
that lie repudiated the parole altogether. In reporting 
to us, General Marshall said : 

" I don't feel at liberty to accept a fee from you, be- 
cause I consider your case hopeless." 

Early in the new year, we addressed a memorial to 
Mr. Seddon, the Rebel Secretary of War, in which we 
attempted to argue the case upon its legal merits, and to 
prove what a flagrant, atrocious violation of ofiicial faith 
was involved in our detention. We plumed ourselves a 
good deal on our legal logic, but Mr. Seddon returned a 
very convincing refutation of our argument. He simply 
wrote an order that we be sent to the Rebel penitentiary 
at Salisbury, North Carolina, to be held until the end of 
the war, as hostages for Rebel citizens confined in the 
North, and for the general good conduct of our Grovern- 
ment toward them ! 

Like the historic Roman, content to be refuted by an 
emperor who was master of fifty legions, we yielded 
gracefully to the argument of the Secretary who had the 
whole Confederate army at his back ; and thus we were 
sent to Salisbury. 

On the night before our departure, the warden, a 
Maryland refugee, named Wiley, ordered us below into 
a very filthy apartment, to be ready for the morning 
train. We appealed to Captain Richardson, Command- 
ant of the Castle, who, countermanding the order, permit- 
ted us to remain in our own more comfortable quarters 
during the night. Ten minutes after, one of the little 
negroes came to our room, and, beckoning me to bend 
down, he whispered : 

"What do you think Mr. Wiley says about Captain 



400 "Abolitionists Before the War." ises.] 

Ricliardsoii's letting yon stay liere to-nigM 1 As soon as 
tlie Captain went out, lie said : ' It' s a sliame for Rich- 
ardson and Browne to receive so many more favors than 

the other prisoners. Why, them, they were 

Abolitionists before the war !' " ' 

On the way to Salisbury we were very closely 
guarded, but there were many times during the night when 
we might easily have jumped from the car window. 

At Raleigh, a pleasant little city of five thousand 
people, named in honor of the great Sir Walter, the 
temptation was very strong. In the confusion and 
darkness through which we passed from one train to 
another, we might easily have eluded the guards ; but 
we were feeble, a long distance from our army lines, and 
quite unfamiliar with the country. It was a golden op- 
portunity neglected ; for it is always comparatively easy 
for captives to escape while in transitu^ and very diffi- 
cult when once within the walls of a military prison. 

On the evening of February 3d we reached Salis- 
bury, and were taken to the Confederate States 
Penitentiary. It was a brick structure, one hundred 
feet by forty, four stories in hight, originally erected 
for a cotton-factory. In addition to the main build- 
ing, there were six smaller ones of brick, which 
had formerly been tenement houses ; and a new 
frame hospital, with clean hay mattresses for forty 
patients. The buildings, which would hold about five 
hundred prisoners, were all filled. Confederate convicts, 
Yankee deserters, about twenty enlisted men of our 
navy and three United States ofiicers confined as host- 
ages, one hundred and fifty Southern Unionists, and fifty 
laorthern citizens, composed the inmates. 



1864.] The Open Am anb Pure Water. 401 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



The miserable have no other medicine, 
But only hope. 

— Mbasttrk foe Mbasctek. 

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, 
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow ? 

— ^Macbeth. 



Truly saith the Italian proverb, "There are no ugly- 
loves and no handsome prisons." Still we found Salis- 
bury comparatively endurable. Captain Swift Galloway, 
commanding, though a hearty Confederate, was kind and 
courteous to the captives. Our sleeping apartment, 
crowded with uncleanly men, and foul with the vilest 
exhalations, was filthy and vermin-infested beyond de- 
scription. No northern farmer, fit to be a northern 
farmer, would have kept his horse or his ox in it. 

But the yard of four acres, like some old college 
grounds, with great oak trees and a well of sweet, pure 
water, was open to us during the whole day. There, the 
first time for nine months, our feet pressed the mother 
earth, and the blessed open air fanned our cheeks. 

Mr. Luke Blackmer, of Salisbury, kindly placed his 
library of several thousand volumes at our disposal. 
Whenever we wished for books we had only to address 
a note to him, through the prison authorities, and, in a 
few hours, a little negro with a basket of them on his 
head would come in at the gate. It seemed more like 
life and less like the tomb than any prison we had inhab- 
ited before. 

And yet those long Summer months were very dreary 
to bear, for we had upon us the one heavy, crusliing 

26 



402 The Crushing Weight of Imprisonment. [i864. 

weight of captivity. It is not hunger or cold, sickness 
or death, which makes prison life so hard to bear. But it 
is the utter idleness, emptiness, aimlessness of such a life. 
It is being, through all the long hours of each day and 
night — for weeks, months, years, if one lives so long — ab- 
solutely without employment, mental or physical — with 
nothing to fill the vacant mind, which always becomes 
morbid and turns inward to prey upon itself. 

What exile from his country 
Can flee himself as well ? 

It was doubtless this which gave us the look peculiar 
to the captive — the disturbed, half- wild expression of the 
eye, the contraction of the wrinkled brow which indicates 
trouble at the heart. 

We were most struck with this in the morning, when, 
on first going out of our sleeping quarters, we passed 
down by the hospital and stopped beside the bench 
where those were laid who had died during the night. 
As we lifted the cloth, to see who had found release, 
the one thing which always impressed me was the perfect 
calm, the sweet, ineffable peace, which those white, thin 
faces wore. For months I never saw it without a twinge 
of envy. Until then I never felt the meaning of the 
words, ' ' where the wicked cease from troubling and the 
weary are at rest." Until then I never realized the 
wealth of the assurance, "He giveth his beloved sleep." 

Some prisoners had an additional weight to bear. 
They were southern Unionists — Tennesseans, IsTorth 
Carolinians, West "Virginians, and Mississippians — whose 
families lived on the border. They knew that they were 
liable any day to have their houses robbed or burned by 
the enemy, and their wives and little ones turned out to 
the mercy of the elements, or the charity of friends. 



1864.] Bad News fkom Home. 403 

This gnawing anxiety took away their elasticity and 
power of endurance. They had far less capacity for 
resisting disease and hardship than the northeners, and 
died in the proportion of four or five to one. .. I could 
hardly wonder at the fervor with which, in their devo- 
tional exercises, night after night, they sung the only 
hymn which they ever attempted : 

" There I shall hathe vaj weary soul 

In seas of heavenly rest ; 
And not a wave of trouble roll 

Across this peaceful breast." 

The cup of others, yet, had a still hitterer ingredient, 
which filled it to overflowing. I wonder profoundly 
that any one drinking of it ever lived to tell his story. 
They had received had news from home — news that 
those nearest and dearest, finding their load of life too 
heavy, had laid it wearily down. During the long 
prison hours, such had nothing to think of but the 
vacant place, the hushed voice, and the desolate hearth. 
Hope — the one thing which huoys up the prisoner — was 
gone. That picture of home, which had looked before 
as heaven looks to the enthusiastic devotee, was for- 
ever darkened. The prisoner knew if the otherwise 
glad hour of his release should ever come, no warmth 
of welcome, no greeting of friendship, no rejoicing of 
affection, could ever replace for him the infinite value 
of the love he had lost. 

Early in the Spring we were delighted to learn from 
Richmond that Colonel Streight had succeeded in esca- 
ping from Libhy. The officers constructed a long tunnel, , 
which proved a perfect success, liberating one hundred 
and fourteen of them. Streight, whose proportions 
tended toward the Falstaffian, was very apprehensive 



404 The Gheat Libby Tunnel. [i864 

that he conld not work his way through it. !N'arrowly 
escaping the fate of the greedy fox which " stuck in the 
hole," he finally squeezed through. The Rehels hated 
him so hitterly that, by the unanimous wish of his fellow- 
prisoners, he was the first man to pass out. A Union 
woman of Richmond concealed him for nearly two 
weeks. The first officers who reached our lines an- 
nounced through the New York papers that Streight had 
arrived at Fortress Monroe. This caused the Richmond 
authorities to relinquish their search ; and finally, under 
a skillful pilot, having traveled with great caution for 
eleven nights to accomplish less than a hundred miles, 
Streight reached the protection of the Stars and Stripes. 

Our prison rations of corn bread and beef were 
tolerable, in quantity and quality. The Salisbury mar- 
ket also afforded a few articles, of which eggs were the 
great staple. We indulged extravagantly in that mild 
form of dissipation — our mess of five at one time having 
on hand seventy- two dozen, which represented, in Con- 
federate currency, about two hundred dollars. 

We soon made the acquaintance of several loyal North 
Carolinians. Citizens of respectability were permitted to 
visit the prison. Those of Union proclivities invari- 
ably found opportunity to converse with us. Like all 
Loyalists of the South, white and black, they trusted 
northern prisoners implicitly. The reign of terror was so 
great that they often feared to repose confidence in each 
other, and cautioned us against repeating their expres- 
sions of loyalty to their neighbors and friends, whose 
Union sympathies were just as strong as theirs. 

Captains Julius L. Litchfield, of the Fourth Maine In- 
fantry, Charles Kendall, of the Signal Corps, and Edward 
E. Chase, of the First Rhode Island Cavalry, were impris- 
oned in the upper room of the factory. Held as hostages 



1864] Horrible Sufferings of Union Officers. 405 

for certain Hebel officers in the Alton, Illinois, peniten- 
tiary, they were sentenced to confinement and hard labor 
during the war. In one instance only was the hard labor 
imposed. In the prison yard they were ordered to re- 
move several heavy stones a few yards and then carry 
them back. For some minutes they stood beside the 
Rebel sergeant, silently and with folded arms. Then 
Chase thus instructed the guard : 

" Go to Captain Gallowaj^, and tell him, with my com- 
pliments, that perhaps I was just as delicately nurtured 
as he — that, if he were in my place, he would hardly do 
this work, and that I will see the whole Confederacy in 
the Bottomless Pit before I lift a single stone !" 

Chase and his comrades were never afterward ordered 
to labor. Other Union officers, held as hostages, arrived 
from time to time. Eight, who came from Richmond, 
had been confined one hundred and forty-five days in 
that horrible Libby cell where the mold accumulated on 
the beard of the Pennsylvania lieutenant. While there 
they suffered intensely from cold, ate daily all their scanty 
ration the moment it was issued, and were compelled to 
fast for the rest of the twenty-four hours, save when they 
could catch rats, which they eagerly devoured. Some 
came out with broken constitutions, and all were fright- 
fully pallid and emaciated. Starving and freezing are 
words easily said, but these gentlemen learned their 
actual significance. 

Four of them were held for Kentucky bushwhackers, 
Vfhom one of our military courts had sentenced to death, 
which they clearly deserved under well-defined laws of 
war. Had they been promptly executed, the Rebels 
would never have dared, in retaliation, to hurt the hair 
of a prisoner's head. But Mr. Lincoln's kindness of 
heart induced him to commute their sentence to imprison- 



406. A Cool Method of Escape. [i864. 

ment, and made him unwittingly tlie cause of this "bar- 
Ibarity toward our own officers. 

The hostages were plucky and enterprising, fre- 
quently attempting to escape. One night they suspend- 
ed from their fourth-story window a rope which they 
had constructed of blankets. Captain Ives, of the Tenth 
Massachusetts Infantry, descended in safety. A daring 
and loyal Rehel deserter, from East Tennessee, named 
Carroll, who designed to pilot them to our lines, attempted 
to follow ; hut the rope hroke, and he fell the whole dis- 
tance, striking upon his head. It would have killed 
most men ; hut Carroll, after spending the night in the 
guard-house, bathed his swollen head and troubled him- 
self no further about the matter. 

Captain B. C, G. Reed, from Zanesville, Ohio, was 
constantly trying to secure his own release. It always 
seemed to make him unhappy when he passed two or 
three weeks without making attempts to escape. They 
usually resulted in his being hand-cuffed and ballasted 
by a ball and chain, or confined in a filthy cell. 

But, sooner or later, perseverance achieves. Once, 
while so weak from inflammatory rheumatism, contracted 
in a Richmond dungeon, that he could hardly walk, he 
made a successful endeavor, in company with Captain 
Litchfield. At nine o' clock, on a rainy March night, with 
their blankets wrapped about them, they coolly walked 
up to the gate. They rebuked the guard who halted 
them, indignantly asking him if he did not know that 
they belonged at head-quarters ! Impudence won the 
day. The innocent sentinel permitted them to pass. 
They went directly through Captain Galloway' s office, 
which fortunately happened to be empty ; reached the 
outer fence ; Litchfield heljDed over his weak companion, 
and the world was all before them, where to choose. 



1864.] Captured through an Obstinate Mule. 407 

Tliey traveled one hundred and twenty miles, iDnt, in 
the mountains of East Tennessee, were recaptured and 
brought back. 

ISTothing daunted, Reed repeated the attempt again 
and again. Finally, he jumped from a train of cars in 
the city of Charleston, found a negro who secreted him, 
and hy night conveyed him in a skifi' to our forces at 
Battery Wagner. Reed returned to his command in 
Thomas's Army, and was subsequently killed in one of 
the battles before JSTashville. Entering the service as a 
private, and fairly winning promotion, he was an excel- 
lent type of the thinking bayonets, of the young men who 
freely gave their lives "for our dear country's sake." 

Early in the summer, our mess was agreeably en- 
larged by the arrival of Mr. William E. Davis, Corre- 
spondent of T7ie Cincinnati Gazette and Clerk of the Ohio 
Senate. Davis owed his capture to the stupidity of a 
mule. Riding leisurely along a road within the lines of 
General Sherman's army, more than a mile from the front, 
he was compelled to pass through a little gap left 
between two corps, which had not quite connected. He 
was suddenly confronted by a double-barreled shot-gun, 
presented by a Rebel standing behind a tree, who com- 
manded him to halt. IN'ot easily intimidated, Davis 
attempted to turn his mule and ride for a life and liberty. 
With the true instinct of his race, the animal resisted the 
rein, seeming to require a ten-acre lot and three days for 
turning around — wherefore the rider fell into the hands 
of the Philistines. 

Books whiled away many weary hours. As Edmond 
Dantes, in the Count of Monte Christo, came out from his 
twelve years of imprisonment " a very well-read man," 
we ought to have acquired limitless lore ; but reading at 
last palled upon our tastes, and we would none of it. 



408 Concealing Money when Searched. [i864. 

Our Salisbury friends supplied us liberally with 
money. The editors of the migratory Memphis Appeal 
frequently offered to me any amount which I might 
desire, and made many attempts to secure my exchange. 

The prison authorities sometimes searched us ; but 
friendly guards, or officers of Union proclivities, would 
always give us timely notice, enabling us to secrete our 
money. One (nominally) Rebel lieutenant, after we were 
drawn up in line and the searching had begun, would 
sometimes receive bank-notes from us, and hand them 
back when we were returned to our own quarters. 

Once, as we were being examined, I had forty dollars, 
in United States currency, concealed in my hat. That 
was an article of dress which had never been examined. 
But now, looking down the line, I saw the guard sud- 
denly commence taking off the prisoners' hats, carefully 
scrutinizing them. Removing the money from mine, I 
handed it to Lieutenant Holman, of Vermont ; but, turn- 
ing around, I observed that two Rebel officers imme- 
diately behind us had witnessed the movement. Holman 
promptly passed the notes to "Junius," who stood near, 
reading a ponderous volume, and who placed them be- 
tween the leaves of his book. Holman was at once 
taken from the line and searched rigorously from head 
to foot, but the Rebels were unable to find the coveted 
"greenbacks." 

The prison officers, under rigid orders from the Rich- 
mond authorities, would sometimes retain money re- 
ceived by mail. Two hundred dollars in Confederate 
notes were thus withheld from me for more than a 
year. Determined that the Rebel officials should not 
enjoy much peace of mind, I addressed them letter after 
letter, reciting their various subterfuges. At last, upon 
my demanding that they should either give me the 



1864.] Attempts to Escape Frustrated. 409 

money, or refuse positively over their own signatures, 
the amount was forthcoming. Thousands of dollars 
belonging to prisoners were confiscated upon frivolous 
pretexts, or no pretext whatever. 

Persistent ill-fortune still followed all our attempts 
to escape. Once we perfected an arrangement with a 
friendly guard, by which, at midnight, he was to pass us 
over the fence upon his beat. Before our quarters were 
locked for the night, "Junius" and myself hid under the 
hospital, where, through the faithful sentinel, escape 
would be certain. But just then, we chanced to be nearly 
without money, and Davis waited for a Union attache 
of the prison to bring him four hundred dollars from a 
friend outside. The messenger, for the first and last time 
in eleven months, becoming intoxicated that afternoon, 
arrived with the money five minutes too late. Davis 
was unable to join us ; we determined not to leave him, 
expecting to repeat the attempt on the following night ; 
but the next day the guard was conscribed and sent to 
Lee's army. 

These constant failures subjected us to many jests 
from our fellow-prisoners. Once, in a dog-day freak, 
"Junius" had every hair shaved from his head, leaving 
his pallid face diversified only by a great German mus- 
tache. He replied to all hadinage that he was not the 
correspondent for whom his interlocutors mistook him, 
but the venerable and famous Chinaman "I^o-Gro." 

The Yankee deserters, having no friends to protect 
them, were treated with great harshness. During a single 
day six were tied up to a post and received, in the aggre- 
gate, one hundred and twenty- seven lashes with the cat- 
o' nine-tails upon their bare backs, as punishment for 
digging a tunnel. Many of them were " bounty-j umpers' ' 
and desperadoes. They robbed each newly-arriving 



410 Yankee Deserters "Whipped and Hanged, [isei. 

deserter of all Ms money, "beating him unmercifully if 
lie resisted. After Toeing tlius whipped, at their own 
request their status was changed, and they were sent as 
prisoners of war to AndersonviUe, Georgia. There the 
Union prisoners, detecting them in several rohberies and 
murders, organized a court-martial, tried them, and hung 
six of them upon trees within the garrison, with ropes 
furnished by the Rebel commandant. 

For seven months no letters, even from our own fami- 
lies, were permitted to reach us. This added much to our 
weariness. I never knew the pathos of Sterne's simple 
story untH I heard "Junius" read it one sad Summer 
night in our prison quarters. For weeks afterward 
rung in my ears the cry of the poor starling : "I can't 
get out ! I can't get out 1" 



1864.] Great Influx of Prisoners. 411 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



Not a soul 

But felt a fever of the mad, and played 
Some tricks of desperation. 

— ^Tempest. 

All trouble, torment, wonder, and amazement 
Inhabit here. 

— Ibid, 



Eaelt in Octolber, the condition of tlie Salislbury gar- 
rison suddenly clianged. !N'early ten thousand prisoners 
of war, half naked and Avithout shelter, were crowded 
into its narrow limits, wliich could not reasonably accom- 
modate more than six hundred. It was converted into a 
scene of suffering and death which no pen can adequate- 
ly describe. For every hour, day and night, we were 
surrounded by horrors which burned into our memories 
like a hot iron. 

We had never before been in a prison containing our 
private soldiers. In spite of many assurances to the 
contrary, we had been skeptical as to the barbarities 
which they were said to suffer at Belle Isle and Ander- 
sonville. We could not believe that men bearing the 
American name would be guilty of such atrocities. ISTow, 
looking calmly upon our last two months in Salisbury, it 
seems hardly possible to exaggerate the incredible cruelty 
of the Rebel authorities. 

When captured, the prisoners were robbed of the 
greater part of their clothing. When they reached Salis- 
bury, all were thinly clad, thousands were barefooted, 
not one in twenty had an overcoat or blanket, and many 
hundreds were without coats or blouses. 



412 - Starving in the Midst of Food. [i864. 

For several weeks, tliej were fumislied witli no shel- 
ter whatever. Afterward, one Sibley tent and one A 
tent was issued to each, hundred men. With the closest 
crowding, these contained about one-half of them. The 
rest burrowed in the earth, crept under buildings, or 
dragged out the nights in the open air upon the muddy, 
snowy, or frozen ground. In October, IS'ovember, and 
December, snow fell several times. It was piteous be- 
yond description to see the poor feUows, coatless, hat- 
less, and shoeless, shivering about the yard. 

They were organized into divisions of one thousand 
each, and subdivided into squads of one hundred. Al- 
most daily one or more divisions was without food for 
twentj^-four hours. Several times some of them received 
no rations for forty-eight hours. The few who had 
money, paid from five to twenty doUars, in Rebel cur- 
rency, for a little loaf of bread. Some sold the coats 
from their backs and the shoes from their feet to pur. 
chase food. 

'\Yhen a subordinate asked the post-Commandant, 
Major John H. Gee, " Shall I give the prisoners full ra- 
tions?" he replied: "No, G— d d— n them, give them 
quarter-rations !," 

Yet, at this very time, one of our Salisbury friends, 
a trustworthy and Christian gentleman, assured us, in a 
stolen interview : 

" It is within my personal knowledge that the great 
commissary warehouse, in this town, is filled to the roof 
with corn, and pork. I know that the prison commis- 
sary finds it difficult to obtain storage for his supplies." 

After our escape, we learned from personal observa- 
tion that the region abounded in corn and pork. Salis- 
bury was a general depot for army supplies. 

That section of country is densely wooded. The cars 



1864.] Freezing in the Midst of Fuel. 413 

"broiiglit fuel to the door of our prison. If the Eebels 
were short of tents, they might easily have paroled two 
or three hundred prisoners, to go out and cut logs, with 
which, in a single week, iDarracks could have been con- 
structed for every captive ; but the Commandant would 
not consent. He did not even furnish half the needed 
fuel. 

Cold and hunger began' to tell fearfully upon the 
robust young men, fresh from the field, who crowded 
the prison. Sickness was very prevalent- and very 
fatal. It invariably appeared in the form of pneumonia, 
catarrh, diarrhoea, or dysentery ; but was directly trace- 
able to freezing and starvation. Therefore the medi- 
cines were of little avail. The weakened men were 
powerless to resist disease, and they were carried to the 
dead-house in appalling numbers. 

By appointment of the prison authorities, my two 
comrades and myself were placed in charge of all the 
hospitals, nine in number, inside the garrison. The 
scenes which constantly surrounded us were enough to 
shake the firmest nerves ; but there was work to be 
done for the relief of our suffering companions. We 
could accomplish very little — hardly more than to give a 
cup of cold water, and see that the patients were treated 
with sympathy and kindness. 

Mr. Davis was general superintendent, and brought 
to his arduous duties good judgment, untiring industry, 
and uniform kindness. 

"Junius" was charged with supplying medicines to 
the " out-door patients." The hospitals, when crowded, 
would hold about six hundred ; but there were always 
many more invalids unable to obtain admission. These 
wretched men waited wearily for death in their tents, 
in subterranean holes, under hospitals,, or in the open 



414 Rebel Surgeons Generally Humane. [i864 

air. My comrade's tender sympathy softened the last 
hours of many a poor fellow who had long l^een a stran- 
ger to 

"The falling music of a gracious -word, 
Or the stray sunshine of a smile." 

I was appointed to supervise all the hospital books, 
keeping a record of each patient's name, disease, ad- 
mission, and discharge or death. At my own solici- 
tation, the Rebel surgeon-in-ohief also authorized me to 
receive the clothing left by the dead, and re-issue it 
among the living. I endeavored to do this systemati- 
cally, keeping lists of the needy, who indeed were nine- 
tenths of all the prisoners. The deaths ranged from 
twenty to forty-eight daily, leaving many garments to be 
distributed. Day after day, in bitterly cold weather, 
pale, fragile boys, who should, have been at home with 
their mothers and sisters, came to me with no clothing 
whatever, except a pair of worn cotton pantaloons and 
a thin cotton shirt. 

Dr. Richard O. Currey, a refugee from Knoxville, 
was the surgeon in charge. Though a genuine Rebel, 
he was just and kind-hearted, doing his utmost to change 
the horrible condition of affairs. Again and again he 
sent written protests to Richmond, which brought sev- 
eral successive inspectors to examine the prison and hos- 
pitals, but no change of treatment. 

We were reluctantly driven to the belief that the 
Richmond authorities deliberately adopted this plan to 
reduce the strength of our armies. The Medusa head of 
Slavery had turned their hearts to stone. At this time, 
they held nearly forty thousand prisoners. In our gar- 
rison the inmates were dying at the rate of thirteen per 
cent, a month upon the aggregate. About as many more 
were enlisting in the Rebel army. Thus our soldiers 



1864.] Terrible Scenes in the Hospitals. 415 

were destroyed at the rate of more than twenty-five per 
cent, a month, with no corresponding loss to the enemy. 

Frequently, for two or three days. Dr. Currey would 
refrain from .entering the garrison, reluctant to look upon 
the revolting scenes from which we could find no escape. 
I am glad to he able to throw one ray of light into so 
dark a picture. Nearly all the surgeons evinced that 
humanity which ought to characterize their profession. 
They were much the hest class of Rebels we encoun- 
tered. They denounced unsparingly the manner in 
which prisoners were treated, and endeavored to mitigate 
their suiferings. 

To call the foul pens, where the patients were confined, 
"hospitals," was a perversion of the English tongue. 
We could not obtain brooms to keep them clean ; we 
could not get cold water to wash the hands and faces of 
those sick and dying men. In that region, where every 
farmer' s barn-yard contained grain- stacks, we could not 
procure clean straw enough to place under them. More 
than half the time they were compelled to lie huddled 
upon the cold, naked, filthy floors, without even that 
degree of warmth and cleanliness usually afforded to 
brutes. The wasted forms and sad, pleading eyes of 
those sufferers, waiting wearily for the tide of life to ebb 
away — without the commonest comforts, without one 
word of sympathy, or one tear of affection — will never 
cease to haunt me. 

At all hours of the day and night, on every side, we 
heard the terrible hack ! hack ! hack ! in whose pneu- 
monic tones every prisoner seemed to be coughing his 
life away. It was the most fearful sound in that fearful 
place. 

The last scene of all was the dead-cart, with its 
rigid forms piled upon each other like logs — the arms 



416 The Eattling Dead-Cart. [i864 

swaying, the white ghastly faces staring, with dropped 
jaws and stony eyes — while it rattled along, bearing its 
precious freight just outside the walls, to be thrown in a 
mass into trenches and covered with a little earth. 

When received, there were no sick or wounded men 
among the prisoners. But iDefore they had been in 
Salisbury six weeks, "Junius," with better facilities 
for knowing than any one else, insisted that among eight 
thousand there were not five hundred well men. The 
Rebel surgeons coincided in this belief. 

The rations, issued very irregularly, were insufficient 
to support life. Men grew feeble before living upon 
them a single week ; but could not buy food from the 
town ; and were not permitted to receive even a meal 
sent by friends from the outside. Our positions in the 
hospitals enabled us to purchase supplies and fare bet- 
ter. Prisoners eagerly devoured the potato-skins from 
our table. They ate rats, dogs, and cats. Many searched 
the yard for bones and scraps among the most revolting 
substances. 

They constantly besieged us for admission to the hos- 
pitals, or for shelter and food, which we were unable to 
give. It seemed almost sinful for us to enjoy protection 
from the weather and food enough to support life in the 
midst of all this distress. 

On wet days the mud was very deep, and the shoe- 
less wretches wallowed pitifully through it, seeking 
vainly for cover and warmth. Two hundred negro pris- 
oners were almost naked, and could find no shelter what- 
ever except by burrowing in the earth. The authori- 
ties treated them with unusual rigor, and guards mur- 
dered them with impunity. 

No song, no athletic game, few sounds of laughter 
broke the silence of the garrison. It was a Hall of Eb- 










f-^l-T: 



',,'' 



i"iii 



i 



1864.} Credulity of our Government. 417 

lis — devoid of its gold-besprinkled pavements, crystal 
vases, and dazzling saloons ; but vritli all its oppressive 
silence, livid lips, sunken eyes, and ghastly figures, at 
wkose hearts the consuming fire was never quenched. 

Constant association with suffering deadened our sen- 
sibilities. We were soon able to pass through the hos- 
pitals little moved by tlieir terrible spectacles, except 
when patients addressed us, exciting a personal in- 
terest. 

The credulity and trustfulness of our Government 
toward the enemy passed belief. Month after month it 
sent by the truce-boats many tons of private boxes for 
Union prisoners, while the Rebels, not satisfied with 
their usual practice of stealing a portion under the rose, 
upon one trivial pretext or other, openly confiscated 
every pound of them. At the same time, returning 
truce-boats were loaded with boxes sent to Rebel pris- 
oners from their friends in the South, and express-lines 
crowded with supplies from their sympathizers in the 
North. 

The Government held a large excess of prisoners, 
and the Rebels were anxious to exchange man for man ; 
but our authorities acted upon the cold-blooded theory 
of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, that we could 
not afford to give well-fed, rugged men, for invalids and 
skeletons — that returned prisoners were infinitely more 
valuable to the Rebels than to us, because their soldiers 
were inexorably kept in the army, while many of ours, 
whose terms of service had expired, would not re-enlist. 

The private soldier who neglects his duty is taken 
out and shot. Officials seemed to forget that the soldier's 
obligation of obedience devolves upon the Government 
the obligation of protection. It was clearly the duty of 
our authorities either to exchange our own soldiers, or 

27 



418 General Butler's Example of Retaliation. [i864. 

to protect tliem — not "by indiscriminate cruelty, but "by 
well-considered, systematic retaliation in kind, until the 
Richmond authorities should treat prisoners with ordi- 
nary humanity. It was very easy to select a number of 
Rebel officers, corresponding to the Union prisoners in 
the Salisbury garrison, and give them precisely the same 
kind and amount of food, clothing, and shelter. 

When the Confederate Government placed certain of 
our negro prisoners under fire, at work upon the forti- 
fications of Richmond, General Butler, in a brief letter, 
informed them that he had stationed an equal num- 
ber of Rebel officers, equally exposed and spade in 
hand, upon Ms fortifications. When his letter reached 
Richmond, before that day' s sun went down, the negroes 
were returned to Libby Prison and ever afterward treat- 
ed as prisoners of war. But, by the mawkish sensibili- 
ties of a few northern statesmen and editors, our Gov- 
ernment was encouraged to neglect the matter, and thus 
permitted the needless murder of its own soldiers — a 
stain upon the nation's honor, and an inexcusable cruelty 
to thousands of aching hearts. 



1864.J Attempted Outbreak and Massacre. 419 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

I have supped full with horrors. 

— Macbeth. 

The wearu-st nnd most loathoil worldly life 
That nche, age, penury and iuiprisonment 
Can lay on nature. 

— Measuke fok Measube. 

Dn the 26th of November, while we were sitting at 
dinner, John Lovell came up from the yard and whisper- 
ed me : 

" There is to "be an insurrection. The prisoners are 
preparing to Ibreak out." 

We had heard similar reports so frequently as to 
lose all faith in them ; but this was true. Without de- 
liberation or concert of action, upon the impulse of the 
moment, a portion of the prisoners acted. Suffering greatly 
from hunger, many having received no food for forty- 
eight hours, they said : 

"Let us break out of this horrible place. We may 
just as well die upon the guns of the guards as by slow 
starvation." 

A number, armed with clubs, sprang upon a Rebel 
relief of sixteen men, just entering the yard. Though 
weak and emaciated, these prisoners performed their part 
promptly and gallantly. Man for man, they wrenched 
the guns from the soldiers. One Rebel resisted and was 
bayoneted where he stood. Instantly, the building 
against which he leaned was reddened by a great stain 
of blood. Another raised his musket, but, before he 
could fire, fell to the ground, shot through the head. 



420 Cold-Blooded Murders Frequent. [iss^ 

Every gun was taken, from the terrified relief, who im- 
mediately ran l)ack to their camp, outside. 

Had parties of four or five hundred then rushed at the 
fence in half a dozen different places, they might have 
confused the guards, and somewhere made an opening. 
But some thousands ran to it at one point only. Having 
neither crow-bars nor axes they could not readily effect 
a breach. At once every musket in the garrison was 
turned upon them. Two field-pieces opened with grape 
and canister. The insurrection — which had not occu- 
pied more than three minutes — was a failure, and the 
uninjured at once returned to their quarters. 

The yard was now perfectly quiet. The portion of it 
which we occupied was several hundred yards from the 
scene of the melee. In our vicinity there had been no dis- 
turbance whatever ; yet the guards stood upon the fence 
for twenty minutes, with deliberate aim firing into the 
tents, upon helpless and innocent men. Several prison- 
ers were killed within a dozen yards of our building. 
One was wounded while leaning against it. The bullets 
rattled against the logs, but none chanced to pass 
through the wide aj)ertures between them, and enter our 
apartment. Sixteen prisoners were killed and sixty 
wounded, of whom not one in ten had participated in the 
outbreak ; while most were ignorant of it until they 
heard the guns. 

After this massacre, cold-blooded murders were very 
frequent. Any guard, standing upon the fence, at any 
hour of the day or night, could deliberately raise his 
musket and shoot into any group of prisoners, black or 
white, without the slightest rebuke from the authori- 
ties. He would not even be taken off his post for it. 

One Union officer was thus killed when there could 
be no pretext that he was violating any prison rule. 



1864.] Hostility to " Tribune" Correspondents. 421 

Moses Smith, a negro soldier of tlie Seventh Maryland 
Infantry, was shot through the head while standing inof- 
fensively beside my own quarters, conversing with John 
Lovell. One of many instances was that of two white 
Connecticut soldiers who were shot within their tents. 
We induced one of the surgeons to inquire at head- 
quarters the cause of the homicide. The answer received 
was, that the guard saw three negroes in range, and, 
knowing he would never have so good an opportunity 
again, fired at them, hut missed aim and killed the 
wrong men ! It seemed to be regarded as a harmless 
jest. 

Though my comrades and myself, either "bj finesse or 
"bribery, often succeeded in obtaining special privileges 
from the prison officers, the hostility of the Confederate 
authorities was unrelenting. Our attorney, Mr. Black- 
mer, after visiting Richmond on our behalf, returned 
and assured us that he saw no hope of our release be- 
fore the end of the war, unless we could effect our escape. 
Robert Ould, who usually denied that he regarded us 
with special hostility, on one occasion, in his cups, re- 
marked to the United States Commissioner : 

" TJie Tribune did more than any other agency to 
bring on the war. It is useless for you to ask the ex- 
change of its correspondents. They are just the men w© 
want, and just the men we ai'e going to hold." 

Our Government, through blundering rather than 
design, released a large number .of Rebel journalists 
without requiring our exchange. Finally, while among 
the horrors of Salisbury, we learned that Edward A. 
Pollard, a malignant Rebel, and an editor of TJie Rich- 
mond Examiner^ most virulent of all the southern pa^ 
pers, was paroled to the city of Brooklyn, after confine- 
ment for a few weeks in the North. This news cut us 



422 A CrjjEL Injustice. [i864. 

like a knife. We, after nearly two years of captivity, in 
that foul, vennin-infested prison, among all its atrocities — 
he, at large, among the comforts and luxuries of one of 
the pleasantest cities in the world ! The thought was so 
l)itter, that, for weeks after hearing the intelligence, we 
did not speak of it to each other. Mr. Welles, Secretary 
of the Navy, was the person who set Pollard at liberty. 
I record the fact, not that any special importance at- 
taches to our individual experience, "but because hun- 
dreds of Union prisoners were subjected to kindred 
injustice. 

At the Salisbury penitentiary was a respectable woman 
from North Carolina, who was confined for two months, 
in the same quarters with the male inmates. Her crime 
was, giving a meal to a Rebel deserter ! In Richmond, 
a Virginian of seventy was shut up with us for a long 
time, on the charge of feeding his own son, who had 
deserted from the army ! 

In September, a number of Rebel convicts, armed 
with clubs and knives, forcibly took from John Lovell a 
Union flag, which he had thus far concealed. After the 
prisoners of war arrived they vented their indignation 
upon the convicts, wherever they could catch them. For 
several days, Rebels venturing into the yard were cer- 
tain to return to their quarters with bruised faces and 
blackened eyes. 

During the peace mania, which seemed to possess the 
North, at the time of McClellan's nomination, the Rebels 
were very hopeful. Lieutenant Stockton, the post- Ad- 
jutant, one day observed : 

" You will go home very soon ; we shall have peace 
within a month." 

"On what do you base your opinion ? " I asked. 

"The tone of your newspapers and politicians. Mc- 



1864.] Kebel Expectations of Peace. 423 

Clellan is certain to "be elected President, and peace will 
immediately follow." 

"You southerners are the most credulous people in 
the whole world. You have been so long strangers to 
freedom of speech and the press, that you cannot com- 
prehend it at all. There are half a dozen public men and 
as many newspapers in the North, who really belong to 
your side, and express their Rebel sympathies with little 
or no disguise. Can you not see that they never receive 
any accessions ? Point out a single important convert 
made by them since the beginning of the war. Before 
Sumter, these same men told you that, if we attempt- 
ed coercion, it would produce war in the North ; and 
you believed them. Again and again they have told 
you, as now, that the loyal States would soon give up 
the conflict, and you still believe them. Wait until the 
people vote, in November, and then tell me what you 
think." 

In due time came news of Mr. Lincoln's re-election. 
The prisoners received it with intense satisfaction. I con- 
veyed it to the Union officers, from whom we were separa- 
ted by bayonets — tossing to them a biscuit containing a 
concealed note. A few minutes after, their cheering and 
shouting excited the surprise and indignation of the 
prison authorities. The next morning I asked Stockton 
how he now regarded the peace prospect. Shaking his 
head, he sadly replied : 

" It is too deep for me ; I cannot see the end." 

A private belonging to the Fifty- ninth Massachusetts 
Infantry, had left Boston, a new recruit, just six weeks 
before we met him. In the interval he participated in 
two great battles and five skirmishes, was wounded in 
the leg, captured, escaped from his guards, while en 
route for Georgia, traveled three days on foot, was then 



424 ■ The Prison Like the Tomb. [1864. 

re-captured and Ibrouglit to Salisburj. His six weeks' 
experience had been fruitful and varied. 

That hope deferred which maketh the heart sick, 
"began to tell seriously upon our mental health. We 
grew morbid and bitter, and were often upon the verge 
of quarreling among ourselves. I remember even feel- 
ing a pang of jealousy and indignation at an account of 
some enjoyment and hilarity among my friends at home. 

Our prison was like the tomb. No voice from the 
j^orth entered its gloomy portal. Knowing that we had 
been unjustly neglected by our own Government, won- 
dering if we were indeed forsaken by God and man, we 
seemed to lose all human interest, and to care little 
whether we lived or died. But I suppose lurking, 
unconscious hope, still buoyed us up. Could we have 
known positively that we must endure eight months 
more of that imprisonment, I think we should have 
received with joy and gratitude our sentence to be taken 
out and shot. 

Frequently prisoners asked us, sometimes with tears 
in their eyes : 

" What shall we do ? We grow weaker day by day. 
Staying here we shall be certain to follow our comrades 
to the hospital and the dead-house. The Rebels assure 
us that if we will enlist, we shall have abundant food 
and clothing ; and we may find a chance of escaping to 
our own lines.'' 

I always answered that they owed no obligation to 
God or man to remain and starve to death. Of the two 
thousand who did enlist, nearly all designed to desert at 
the first opportunity. Their remaining comrades had no 
toleration for them. If one who had joined the Rebels 
came back into the yard for a moment, his life was in im- 
minent peril. Two or three times such persons were 



1864.] Something about Tunneling. 425 

shockingly beaten, and only saved from death by the in- 
terference of the Kebel guards. This ferocity was but 
the expression of the deep, unselfish patriotism of our pri- 
vate soldiers. These men, who carried muskets and re- 
ceived but a mere pittance, were so earnest that they 
were almost ready to kill their comrades for joining the 
enemy even to escape a slow, torturing death. 

We grew very familiar with the occult science of tun- 
neling. Its modus operandi is this : the workman, hav- 
ing sunk a hole in the ground three, six, or eight feet, as 
the case may require, strikes off horizontally, lying flat 
on his face, and digging with whatever tool he can 
find — usually a case-knife. The excavation is made just 
large enough for one man to creej) through it. The great 
difficulty is, to conceal the dirt. In Salisbury, hov/ever, 
this obstacle did not exist, for many of the prisoners 
lived in holes in the ground, which they were constantly 
changing or enlarging. Hence the yard abounded in hil- 
locks of fresh earth, upon which that taken from the tun- 
nels could be spread nightly without exciting notice. 

After the great influx of prisoners of war in October, 
a large tunneling business was done. I knew of fifteen 
in course of construction at one time, and doubtless there 
were many more. The Commandant adopted an inge- 
nious and effectual method of rendering them abortive. 

In digging laterally in the ground, at the distance of 
thirty or forty feet the air becomes so foul that lights will 
not burn, and men breathe with difficulty. In the great 
tunnel sixty-five feet long, by which Colonel Streight and 
many other officers escaped from Libby prison, this em- 
barrassment was obviated by a bit of Yankee ingenuity. 
The officers, with tacks, blankets, and boards, constructed 
a pair of huge bellows, like those used by blacksmiths. 
Then, while one of them worked with his case-knife^ 



426 The Tunnelees Ingeniously Baffled. [i864. 

progressing four or fire feet in twelve hours, and a second 
filled his haversack with dirt and removed it (of course 
hacking out, and crawling in on his return, as the tunnel 
was a single track, and had no turn-table), a third sat at 
the mouth pumping vigorously, and thus supplied the 
workers with fresh air. 

At Salisbury this was impracticable. I suppose a 
paper of tacks could not have been purchased there for 
a thousand dollars. There were none to be had. Of 
course we could not pierce holes up to the surface of the 
ground for ventilation, as that would expose every thing. 

Originally there was but one line of guards — posted 
some twenty-five feet apart, upon the fence which sur- 
rounded the garrison, and constantly walking to and fro, 
meeting each other and turning back at the limits of each 
post. Under this arrangement it was necessary to tunnel 
about forty feet to go under the fence, and come up far 
enough beyond it to emerge from the earth on a dark 
night without being seen or heard by the sentinels. 

When the Commandant learned (through prisoners 
actually suffering for food, and ready to do almost any 
thing for bread) that tunneling was going on, he tried to 
ascertain where the excavations were located ; but in 
vain, because none of the shaky Unionists had been in- 
formed. Therefore he established a second line of guards, 
one hundred feet outside of those on the fence, who also 
paced back and forth in the same manner until they met, 
forming a second line impervious to Yankees. This ne- 
cessitated tunneling at least one hundred and forty feet, 
which, without ventilation, was just as much out of the 
question as to tunnel a hundred and forty miles. 



1864.] Fifteen Months of Fruitless Endeavor. 427 



IT. 
THE ESCAPE. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

"A good -wit will make use of any thing! 1 will turn diseases to commodity." 

KtNO Hbnet IV. 

We were constantly trying to escape. During the last 
fifteen months of onr imprisonment, I think there was 
no day when we had not some plan which we hoped soon 
to put in execution. We were always talking and the- 
orizing about the subject. 

Indeed, we theorized too much. We magnified obsta- 
cles. We gave our keepers credit for greater shrewdness 
and closer observation than they were capable of. We 
would not start until all things combined to promise suc- 
cess. Therefore, as the slow months wore away, again 
and again we saw men of less capacity, but greater 
daring, escape by modes which had appeared to us 
utterly chimerical and impracticable. 

Fortune, too, persistently baffled us. At the vital mo- 
ment when freedom seemed just within our grasp, some 
unforeseen obstacle always intervened to foil our plans. 
Still, assuming a confidence we did not feel, we daily 
promised each other to persist until we gained our lib- 
erty or lost our lives. After the malignity which the 
Richmond authorities had manifested toward us, escape 
seemed a thousand-fold preferable to release by ex- 
change. 

I should hardly dare to estimate the combined length 
of tunnels in which we were concerned; they were 



428 A Fearful Journey in Prospect. [i864 

always discovered, usually on the eve of completion. 
My associate was wont to declare tliat we should never 
escape in that way, unless we constructed an underground 
road to Knoxville — two hundred miles as the bird flies ! 

Even if we passed the prison walls, the chance of 
reaching our lines seemed almost hopeless. We were in 
the heart of the Confederacy. During the ten months 
we spent in Salisbury, at least seventy persons escaped ; 
but neai'ly all were brought back, though a few were 
shot in the mountains. We knew of only five who 
had reached the North. 

"Junius," certain to see the gloomy side of every 
picture, frequently said : "To walk the same distance 
in Ohio or Massachusetts, where we could travel by 
daylight upon public thoroughfares, stop at each vil- 
lage for rest and refreshments, and sleep in warm beds 
every night, we should consider a severe hardship. 
Think of this terrible tramp of two hundred miles, by 
night, in mid-winter, over two ranges of mountains, 
creeping stealthily through the enemy' s country, weak, 
hungry, shelterless ! Can any of us live to accomplish 
it?" 

When at last we did essay it, the journey proved 
nearly twice as long and infinitely severer than even he 
had conceived. 

Among the officers of the prison, were three stanch 
Union men — a lieutenant, a surgeon, and Lieutenant 
John R. Welborn. They were our devoted friends. 
Their homes, families, and interests, were in the South. 
Attempting to escape, they were likely to be captured 
and imprisoned. Remaining, they must enter the army 
in some capacity, and they preferred Avearing swords 
to carrying muskets. Hundreds of Loyalists Avere in 
the same predicament, and adopted the same course. 



2884] A Friendly Confederate Officer. 429 

Tlicse gentlemen were of service to us in a thousand 
ways. They supplied us with money, books, and pro- 
visions ; bore messages between us and other friends in 
the village ; and kept us constantly advised of military 
and political events known to the officials, but concealed 
from the public. 

Lieutenant Welborn came to the garrison only about 
a month before our departure. He belonged to a 
secret organization known as the Sons of America, insti- 
tuted expressly to assist Union men, whether prisoners 
or refugees, in escaping to the North. Its members were 
bound, by solemn oath, to aid brothers in distress. They 
recognized each other by the signs, grips, and passwords, 
common to all secret societies. 

We soon discovered that Welborn was not only of 
the Order, but a very earnest and self-sacrificing mem- 
ber. He was singularly daring. At our first stolen 
interview he said : " You shall be out very soon, at all 
hazards." Had he been detected in aiding us, it would 
have cost him his life ; but he was quite ready to peril it. 

Beyond the inner line of sentinels, which was much 
the more difficult one to pass, stood a Rebel hospital, 
where all medicines for the garrison were stored. When 
we were placed in charge of the Union hospitals, Mr. 
Davis was furnished with a pass to go out for medical 
supplies. It was the inflexible rule of the prison that 
all persons having such passes should give paroles not 
to escape. Davis would have assumed no such obliga- 
tion. But in the confusion incident to the great influx 
of prisoners of war, and because it was the business of 
several Rebel officers — the Commandant, the Medical 
Director, and the Post- Adjutant — instead of the duty of 
one man to see it done, he was never asked for the parole. 

A few days later, the prison authorities gave similar 



430 Effects of Hunger and Cold. [i864 

passes to ''Junius" and to Captain Thomas E. Wolfe, 
of Connecticut, master of a merchant- vessel, who had 
been a prisoner nearly as long as we. We attempted to 
convince them, through several deluded Rebel attaches^ 
that it was essential to the proper conduct of the medical 
department that I too should be supplied with a pass- 
Doubtless we should have succeeded in time, had not an 
incident occurred to hasten our movements. 

On Sunday, December 18th, we learned that General 
Bradley T. Johnson, of Maryland, had arrived, and 
on the following day would supersede Major Gee as 
Commandant of the prison, Johnson was a soldier who 
knew how business should be done, and would doubtless 
put a stop to this loose arrangement about passes. Not 
a moment was to be lost, and we determined to escape 
that very night. 

I engaged several prisoners, without informing them 
for what purpose, in copying from my hospital books 
the names of the dead, I felt that, to relieve friends at 
home, we ought to make an effort to carry through this 
information, as long as there was the slightest possibility 
of success. 

My own books only contained the names of prisoners 
who died in the hospitals. "Out-door patients" — those 
deceased in their own quarters, or in no quarters what- 
ever, were recorded in a separate book, by the Rebel clerk 
in the outside hospital, I dared not send to him for 
their names on Sunday, lest it should excite his suspicion. 
But the list from my own records was appalling. It com- 
prised over fourteen hundred prisoners deceased within 
sixty days, and showed that they were now dying at 
the rate of thirteen per cent, a month on the entire num- 
ber — a rate of mortality which would depopulate any 
city in the world in forty-eight hours, and send tiie 



1864] Another Plan in Reserve. 431 

people flying in all directions, as from a pestilence ! Yet 
when those prisoners came there, they were young and 
vigorous, like our soldiers generally in the field. There 
was not a sick or wounded man among them. It was a 
fearful revelation of the work which cold and starva- 
tion had done. 

When I put on extra under-clothing for the possible 
journey, it was without conscious expectation — almost 
without any hope whatever — of success. I had assumed 
the same garments for the same purpose, at the very least, 
thirty times before, within fifteen months, only to be dis- 
appointed ; and that Avas enough to dampen the most san- 
guine temperament. 

We believed that our attempt, if detected, would be 
made the excuse for treating us with peculiar rigor. 
But, in the event of discovery, we were likely to be sent 
back to our own quarters for the night, and not ironed or 
confined in a cell until the next morning. 

Lieutenant Welborn was on duty that day. We 
made him privy to our plan. He agreed, if it proved 
unsuccessful, to smuggle in muskets for us ; and we pro- 
posed to wrap ourselves in gray blankets, slouch our 
hats down over our eyes, and pass out at midnight, as 
Rebel soldiers, when he relieved the guard. Once in the 
camp, he could conduct us outside. 

On that Sunday evening, half an hour before dark 
(the latest moment at which the guards could be passed, 
even by authorized persons, without the countersign), 
Messrs. Browne, Wolfe, and Davis, went outside, as if to 
order their medical supplies for the sick prisoners. As 
they passed in and out a dozen times a day, and their 
faces were quite familiar to the sentinels, they were not 
compelled to show their passes, and "Junius" left his 
behind with me. 



432 Stopped by the Sentinel. [1864. 

A few minutes later, taking a long Tdox filled with 
bottles in wMch the medicines were usually brought, and 
giving it to a little lad who assisted me in my hospital 
duties, I started to follow them. 

As if in great haste, we walked rapidly toward the 
fence, while, leaning against trees or standing in the hos- 
pital doors, half a dozen friends looked on to see how 
the plan worked. When we reached the gate, I took the 
box from the boy, and said to him, of course for the ben- 
efit of the sentinel : 

"I am going outside to get these bottles filled. I 
shall be back in about fifteen minutes, and want you to 
remain right here, to take them and distribute them 
among the hospitals. Do not go away, now." 

The lad, understanding the matter perfectly, replied, 
"Yes, sir ;" and I attempted to pass the sentinel by mere 
assurance. 

I had learned long before how far a man may go, even 
in captivity, by sheer, native impudence — by moving 
straight on, without hesitation, with a confident look, 
just as if he had a right to go, and no one had any right 
to question him. Several times, as already related, I 
saw captives, who had procured citizens' clothes, thus 
walk past the guards in broad daylight, out of Rebel 
prisons. ' 

I think I could have done it on this occasion, but for 
the fact that it had been tried successfully twice or thrice, 
and tlie guards severely punished. The sentinel stopped 
me with his musket, demanding : 

"Have you a pass, sir ?" 

" Certainly, I have a pass," I replied, with all the in- 
dignation I could assume. "Have you not seen it often 
enough to know by this time ?" 

Apparently a little confounded, he replied, modestly : 



1864] " Excuse Me for Detaining You." 433 

*' Prolbalbly I liave ; Ibut they are very strict with us, 
and I was not quite sure." 

I gave to him this genuine pass "belonging to my 
associate : 

Head-qtjaetees Oonfedeeate States Militaet Peison, ) 
Salisbtiey, ]Sr. 0., December 5, 1864. ) 

Junius H. Browne, Citizen, has permission to pass the inner gate of 
the Prison, to assist in carrying medicines to' the Military Prison Hos- 
pitals, until further orders. J. A. Fijqua, 

Captain and Assistant-Commandant of Post. 

We had speculated for a long time about my using a 
spurious pass, and my two comrades prepared several 
with a skill and exactness which proved that, if their 
talents had been turned in that direction, they might 
have made first-class forgers. But we finally decided 
that the veritable pass was better, because, if the guard 
had any doubt about it, I could tell him to send it into 
head-quarters for examination. The answer returned 
would of course be that it was genuine. 

But it was not submitted to any such inspection. The 
sentinel spelled it out slowly, then folded and returned it 
to me, saying : 

"That pass is all right. I know Captain Fuqua's 
handwriting. Go on, sir ; excuse me for detaining you." 

I thought him excusable under the circumstances, and 
walked out. My great fear was that, during the half 
hour which must elapse before I could go outside the 
garrison, I might encounter some Rebel officer or attache 
who knew me. 

Before I had taken ten steps, I saw, sauntering to and 
fro on the piazza of the head-quarters building, a deserter 
from our service, named Davidson, who recognized and 
bowed to me. I thought he would not betray me, but 
was still fearful of it. I went on, and a few yards far- 



434 ENCOUNTERiNa Rebel Acquaintances. [i864, 

ther, coming toward me in that narrow lane, where it 
was impossible to avoid him, I saw the one Rebel officer 
who knew me better than any other, and who frequently 
came into my quarters — Lieutenant Stockton, the Post- 
Adjutant. Observing him in the distance, I thought I 
recognized in him that old ill- fortune which had so long 
and steadfastly baffled us. But I had the satisfaction of 
knowing that my associates were on the look-out from a 
window and, if they saw me involved in any trouble, 
would at once pass the outer gate, if possible, and make 
good their own escape. 

When we met, I bade Stockton good-evening, and 
talked for a few minutes upon the weather, or some other 
subject in which I did not feel any very profound inter- 
est. Then he passed into head-quarters, and I went on. 
Yet a few yards farther, I encountered a third Rebel, 
named Smith, who knew me well, and whose quarters, 
inside the garrison, were within fifty feet of my own. 
There were not half a dozen Confederates about the 
prison who were familiar with me ; but it seemed as if 
at this moment they were coming together in a grand 
convention. 

Not daring to enter the Rebel hospital, where I was 
certain to be recognized, I laid down my box of medi- 
cines behind a door, and sought shelter in a little out- 
building. While I remained there, waiting for the blessed 
darkness, I constantly expected to see a sergeant, with a 
file of soldiers, come to take me back into the yard ; but 
none came. It was rare good fortune. Stockton, Smith, 
and Davidson, all knew, if they had their wits about 
them, that I had no more right there than in the village 
itself. I suppose their thoughtlessness must have been 
caused by the peculiarly honest and business-like look 
of that medicine-box ! 



1864.] "Out of the Jaws of Death." 435 



CHAPTER XL. 



"Wheresoe'er you are 



That bide the pelting of tliis pitiless storm, \ 

How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, 
Tour looped and windowed raggedness, defend you ? 

King Leak. 

At dark, my tliree friends joined me. We went 
throngli the outer gate, in full view of a sentinel, who 
supposed we were Rebel surgeons or nurses. And then, 
on that rainy Sunday night, for the first time in twenty 
months, we found ourselves walking freely in a public 
street, without a Rebel bayonet before or behind us ! 

Reaching an open field, a mile from the prison, we 
crouched down upon the soaked ground, in a bed of 
reeds, while Davis went to find a friend who had long 
before promised us shelter. While lying there, we 
heard a man walking through the darkness directly tow- 
ard us. We hugged the earth and held our breaths, list- 
ening to the beating of our own hearts. He passed so 
near, that his coat brushed my cheek. We were beside a 
path which led across the field from one house to another. 
Davis soon returned, and called us with a low "Hist!" 
We crept to the fence where he waited. 

" It is all right," he said ; " follow me." | 

He led us through bushes and lanes until we found 
our friend, leaning against a tree in the rain, waiting for 
us. 

"Thank God !" he exclaimed, " you are out at last. I 
wish I could extend to you the hospitalities of my house ; 
but it is full of visitors, and they are all Rebels. How- 



436 Hiding in Sight of the Prison. [1864 

ever, I will take you to a toleraHy safe place. I have to 
leave town by a night train in half an hour, iDut I will 

tell where you are, and he will come and see you 

to-morrow." 

He conducted us to a barn, in full sight of the prison ; 
directed us how to hide, wrung our hands, bade us Grod- 
speed, and returned to his house and his unsuspecting 
guests. 

We climbed up the ladder into the hay-mow. Davis 
and Wolfe burrowed down perpendicularly into the fod- 
der, as if sinking an oil-well, until they wei^e covered, 
heads and all. " Junius" and myself, after two hours of 
perspiring labor, tunneled into a safe position under the 
eaves, where we lay, stretched at full length, head to 
head, luxuriating in the fresh air, which came in through 
the cracks. 

Wonderfully pure and delicious it seemed, contrasted 
with the foul, vitiated atmosphere we had just left ! How 
sweet smelled the hay and the husks ! How infinite the 
"measureless content" which filled us at the remem- 
brance that at last we were free ! Hearing the prison 
sentinels, as they shouted ' ' Ten o' — clock ; a — ^11' s well !" 
we sank, like Abou Bsn Adhem, into a deep dream of 
peace. 

Our object in remaining here was twofold. We de- 
sired to meet Welborn, and obtain minute directions 
about the route, which thus far he had found no oppor- 
tunity to give us. Besides, we anticipated a vigilant 
search. The Rebel authorities were thoroughly familiar 
with the habits of escaping prisoners, who invariably 
acted as if there were never to be any more nights after 
the first, and walked as far as their strength would per- 
mit. Thus exhausted, they were unable to resist or run, 
if overtaken. 



1864] Certain to be Brought Back. 437 

The Commandant would "be likely to send out and 
picket all the probable routes near the points we could 
reach by a hard night's travel. We thought it good 
policy to keep inside these scouts. While they held 
the advance, they would hardly obtain tidings of us. 
We could learn from the negroes where they guarded 
the roads and fords, and thus easily evade them. Our 
shelter, in full view of the garrison, and within sound of 
its morning drum-beat, was the one place, of all others, 
where they would never think of searching for us. 

On the second morning after our disappearance, The 
Salishury Daily WatcJiman announced the escape, and 
said that it caused some chagrin, as we were the most im- 
portant prisoners in the garrison. But it added that we 
were morally certain to De brought back within a week, 
as scouts had been sent out in all directions, and the 
country thoroughly alarmed. Some of these scouts went 
ninety miles from Salisbury, but were uaturaUv unable 
to learn any thing concerning us. 

II. Monday, December 19. 

Remained hidden in the barn. There was a house 
only a few yards away, and we could hear the conversa- 
tion of the inmates whenever the doors were open. 
White and negro children came up into the hay-loft, 
sometimes running and jumping directly over the heads 
of Wolfe and Davis. 

At dark, another friend, a commissioned officer in the 
Rebel army, came out to us with a canteen of water, 
which, quite without food, we had wanted sadly during 
the day. He was unable to bring us provisions. His 
wife was a Southern lady. Reluctant to cause her 
a^nxiety tor his liberty and property, imperiled by aiding 
us, or from some other reason, he did not take her into 



438 Commencing the Long Joueney. [i864 

the secret. Like most frugal wives, where young and 
adult negroes al)ound5 she kept her provisions under 
lock and key, and he found it impossible to procure 
even a loaf of bread without her knowledge. 

With his parting benediction, we returned to the field 
where we had waited the night before, and found Lieu- 
tenant Welborn, punctual to appointment, with another 
escaped prisoner, Charles Thurston, of the Sixth IS'ew 
Hampshire Infantry. 

Thurston had two valuable possessions — great address, 
and the uniform of a Confederate private. At ten o' clock, 
on Sunday night, learning of our escape, and thinking us 
a good party to accompany, he walked out of the prison 
yard behind two Rebel detectives, the sentinel taking 
him for a third officer. Slouching his hat over his face, 
with matchless effrontery he sat down on a log, among 
the Rebel guards. In a few minutes he caught the eye 
of Welborn, who soon led him by all the sentinels, 
giving the countersign as he passed, until he was outside 
the garrison, and then hid him in a barn, half a mile 
from our place of shelter. The negroes fed him during 
the day ; and now, here he was, jovial, sanguine, daring, 
ready to start for the North Pole itself. 

Welborn gave us written directions how to reach 
friends in a stanch Union settlement fifty miles away. 
It was hard tO part from the noble fellow. At that very 
moment he was under arrest, and awaiting trial by court 
martial, on the charge of aiding prisoners to escape. In 
due time he was acquitted. Three months later he 
reached our lines at Knoxville, with thirty Union prison- 
ers, whom he had conducted from Salisbury. 

We said adieu, and went out into the starry silence. 
Plowing through the mud for three miles, we struck tke 
Western Railroad, and followed it. Beside it were seve- 



1864.] " Too Weak for Traveling. 439 

ral camps witli great firee "blazing in front of them. Un- 
certain whether they were occupied by guards or wood- 
choppers, we kept on the safe side, and flanked them "by 
wide detours through the almost impenetrable forest. 

We were very weak. In the garrison we had been 
burying from twelve to twenty men per day, from pneu- 
monia. I had suffered from it for more than a month, and 
my cough was peculiarly hollow and stubborn. My 
lungs were still sore and sensitive, and walking greatly 
exhausted me. It was difficult, even when supported by 
the arm of one of my friends, to keep up with the party. 
At midnight I was compelled to lie, half unconscious, 
upon the ground, for three-quarters of an hour, before I 
could go on. 

We accomplished twelve miles during the night. At 
three o' clock in the morning we went into the pine-woods, 
and rested upon the frozen ground. 

III. Tuesday, December 20. 

We supposed our hiding-place very secluded ; but 
daylight revealed that it was in the midst of a settle- 
ment. Barking dogs, crowing fowls, and shouting 
negroes, could be heard from the farms all about us. 
It was very cold, and we dared not build a fire. None 
of us were adequately clothed, and "Junius" had not 
even an overcoat. It was impossible to bring extra gar- 
ments, which would have excited the attention of the sen- 
tinel at the gate. 

We could sleep for a few minutes on the pine-leaves ; 
but soon the chilly air, penetrating every fibre, would 
awaken us. There was a road, only a few yards from our 
pine-thicket, upon which we saw horsemen and farmers 
with loads of wood, but no negroes unaccompanied by 
white men. 



440 Severe March in the Rain. [i864. 

Soon after dark it Ibegan to rain ; Ibnt necessity, that in- 
exorable policeman, bade us move on. When we ap- 
proached a large plantation, leaving ns behind, in a fence- 
corner, Thurston went forward to reconnoiter. He found 
the negro quarters occupied by a middle-aged man and 
woman. They were very busy that night, cooking for 
and serving the young white people, who had a pleas- 
ure-party at the master' s house, within a stone' s throw 
of the slave-cabin. 

But when they learned that there were hungry Yan- 
kees in the neighborhood, they immediately prepared and 
brought out to us an enormous supper of fresh pork and 
corn-bread. It was now nine o' clock on Tuesday night, 
and we had eaten nothing since three o' clock Sunday 
afternoon, save about three ounces of bread and four 
ounces of meat to the man. We had that to think of 
which made us forget the gnawings of hunger, though 
we suffered somewhat from a feeling of faintness. Now, 
in the barn, with the rain pattering on the roof, we de- 
voured supper in an incredibly brief period, ^and begged 
the slave to go back with his basket and bring just 
as much more. 

About midnight the negro found time to pilot us 
through the dense darkness and pouring rain, back to 
the railroad, from which we had strayed three miles. 
The night was bitterly cold, and in half an hour we were 
as wet as if again shipwrecked in the Mississippi; 

For five weary miles we plodded on, with the stinging 
rain pelting our faces. Then we stopped at a plantation, 
and found the negroes. They told us it was unsafe to 
remain, several white men being at home, and no good 
hiding-place near, but directed us to a neighbor' s. There 
the slaves sent us to a roadside barn, which we reached 
iust before daylight. 



1864.] A Cabin of Friendly Negroes. 441 



CHAPTER XLl. 

I am not a Stephano, but a cramp. 

TbmpBST. 

Let every man shift for all the rest, and let no man 
Take care for himself; for all ia but fortune. 

Ibid. 

The Ibarn contained no fodder except damp linsks. 
Burrowing into these, we wrapped our dripping coats 
about us, covered ourselves, faces and all, and shivered 
through the day, so weary that we drowsed a little, but 
too uncomfortable for any refreshing slumbers. 

Rising at dark, with skins irritated by atoms of 
husk which had penetrated our clothing, we combed out 
our matted hair and beards— a very faint essay toward 
making our toilets. Hats, gloves, handkerchiefs, and 
haversacks, were hopelessly lost in the fodder. Hungry, 
cold, rheumatic, aching at every joint, we seemed to 
have exhausted our slender endurance. 

But a walk of ten minutes took us to a slave-cabin, 
where, as usual, we found devoted friends. The old 
negro killed two chickens, and then stood outside, to 
watch and warn us of the patrols, should he hear the 
clattering hoofs of their approaching horses. His wife 
and daughter cooked supper, while we stood before the 
blazing logs of the wide-mouthed fireplace, to dry our 
steaming garments. 

It was the first dwelling I had entered for nearly 
twenty months. It was rude almost to squalor; but 
it looked more palatial than the most elegant and luxu- 
rious saloon. There was a soft bed, with clean, snowy 



442 Southerners Unacquainted with Tea. [i864 

sheets. How I envied those negroes, and longed to 
stretch my limhs upon it and sleep for a month ! There 
"Were chairs, a tahle, plates, kniyes, and forks — the com- 
monest comforts of life, which, like sweet cold water, 
clean clothing, and pure air, we never appreciate until 
once deprived of them. 

We eagerly devoured the chickens and hot corn- 
hread, and drank steaming cups of green tea, which our 
ehony hostess, unfamiliar with the beverage that cheers, 
"but not inebriates, prepared under my directions. Be- 
fore starting I had taken the precaution to fill a pocket 
with tea, which I had been saving more than a year 
for that purpose. In commercial parlance, tea was tea 
in the Confederacy. The last pound we purchased, for 
daily use, cost us one hundred and twenty-seven dol- 
lars in Rebel currency, and we were compelled to send 
to Wilmington before we could obtain it even at that 
price. 

It is an article little used by the Southerners, who 
are inveterate coflfee-drinkers. All along our route we 
found the women, white and black, ignorant of the art 
of making tea without instructions. Captain Wolfe 
assured us that his father once attended a log-rolling in 
South Carolina, where, as a rare and costly luxury, the 
host regaled the workers with tea at the close of their 
labors. But, unacquainted with its use, they were only 
presented with the boiled leaves to eat ! After this novel 
banquet, one old lady thus expressed the views of the 
rural assembly: "Well, I never tasted this before. It 
is pleasant enough ; but except for the name of it, I don't 
consider tea a bit better than any other kind of greens !" 

Experience on the great Plains and among the Rocky 
Mountains had taught me the superiority of tea over all 
stronger stimulants in severe, protracted hardships. 



1864.] Walking Twelve Miles for Nothing. 443 

Now it proved of inestimalble service to us. After a 
two-hours' halt, refreshed "by food and dry clothing, we 
seemed to have a new lease of life. Elastic and vigorous, • 
we felt equal to almost any labor. 

"May Grod bless you," said the old woman, bidding 
us adieu, while earnest sympathy shone from her own 
and her daughter' s eyes and illumined their dark faces. 
To us they were " black, and comely too." The husband 
led us to the railroad, and there parted from us. 

At midnight we were twenty-three miles from Salis- 
bury, and three from Statesville. "We wished to avoid 
the latter village; and leaving the railway, which ran 
due west, turned farther northward. In two miles we 
expected to strike the Wilkesboro road, at Allison's 
Mill. We followed the old negro's directions as well as 
possible, but soon suspected that we must be off the route. 
It was bitterly cold, and to avoid suffering we walked 
on and on with great rapidity. Before daylight, at a 
large plantation, we wakened a slave, and learned that, 
since leaving the railway, we had traveled twelve miles 
circuitously and gained just one half-mile on the jour- 
ney ! There were two Allison' s Mills, and our black 
friend had directed us to the wrong one. 

"Can you conceal us here to-day?" we asked in a 
whisper of the negro who gave us this information from 
his bed, in a little cabin. 

"I reckon so. Master is a terrible war-man, a Con- 
federate officer, and would kill me if he were to find it 
out. But I kept a sick Yankee captain here last sum- 
mer for five days, and then he went on. Gfo to the barn 
and hide, and I will see you when I come to fodder the 
horses." 

We found the barn, groped our way up into a hay- 
loft, under the eaves, and buried ourselves in the straw. 



444 Every Black Face a Friendly Face. [1864 

V. Tliursday, December 22. 

The Ibiting wind wMstled and shrieked between the 
logs of the "barn, and, cover ourselves as we wonld, it 
was too cold for sleep. The negro— an intelligent young 
man — spent several hours with us, asking questions 
ahout the ITorth, brought us ample supplies of food, arid 
a bottle of apple-brandy purloined from his master's 
private stores. 

At dark he took us into his quarters, only separated 
by a narrow lane from the planter's house, and we 
were warmed and fed. A dozen of the blacks — inclu- 
ding little boys and girls of ten and twelve years — vis- 
ited us there. Among them was a peculiarly intelli- 
gent mulatto woman of twenty -five, comely, and neatly 
dressed. The poor girl interrogated us for an hour very 
earnestly about the progress of the War, its probable 
results, and the feeling and purposes of the IS'orth 
touching the slaves. Using language with rare pro- 
priety, she impressed me as one who would willingly 
give up life for her unfortunate race. With culture and 
opportunity, she would have been an intellectual and 
social power in any circle. She was the wife of a slave ; 
but her companions told us that she had been compelled 
to become the mistress of her master. She spoke of him 
with intense loathing. 

By this time we had learned that every black face 
was a friendly face. So far as fidelity was concerned, 
we felt just as safe among the negroes as if in our North- 
ern homes. Male or female, old or young, intelligent or 
simple, we were fully assured they would never betray 
us. 

Some one has said that it needs three generations to 
make a gentleman. Heaven only knows how many gen- 
erations are required to make a freeman ! But we have 



1864] Touching Fidelity of the Slaves. 445 

been accustomed to consider this perfect trustworthi- 
ness, this complete loyalty to friends, a distinctively 
^axon trait. The very rare degree to which the negroes 
have manifested it, is an augury of brightest hope and 
promise for their future. It is a faint indication of what 
they may one day become, with Justice, Time, and Op- 
portunity. 

They were always ready to help anybody opposed 
to the Rebels. Union refugees. Confederate deserters, 
escaped prisoners — all received from them the same 
prompt and invariable kindness. But let a Rebel 
soldier, on his way to the army, or returning from it, 
apply to them, and he would find but cold kindness. 

The moment they met us, they would do whatever we 
required upon impulse and instinct. But afterward, 
when there was leisure for conversation, they would 
question us with some anxiety. Few had ever seen a 
Yankee before. They would repeat to us the bugbear 
stories of their masters, about our whipping them to 
force them into the Union army, and starving their wives 
and children. Professing utterly to discredit these re- 
ports, they still desired a little reassurance. We can 
never forget their upturned, eager eyes, and earnest 
faces. Happily we could tell them that the Nation was 
rising to the great principles of Freedom, Education, and 
an open Career for every human being. 

Starting at ten o'clock to-night, we had an arduous 
march over the rough, frozen ground. Hard labor and 
loss of sleep began to tell upon us. I think every 
member of the party had his mental balance more or less 
shaken. Davis was haggard, with blood- shot eyes ; 
"Junius" was pallid, and threatened with typhoid 
fever ; Wolfe, with a sprained ankle, could barely limp ; 
I was weak and short of breath, from the pneumonic 



446 Pursued by a Home Guard. [i864. 

affection, Charley Thurston was our "best foot, and we 
always put him foremost. With his Confederate uni- 
form and his ready invention, he could play Rebel 
soldier admirably. 

Toward morning we were compelled to stop, build a 
fire in the dense pine-forest, and rest for an hour. We 
were uncertain about the roads, and just before day- 
light Charley stopped to make inquiries of an old far- 
mer. Then we went on, and, as the road was very 
secluded, were talking with less discretion than usual, 
when a twig snapped behind us. Instantly turning 
around, we saw the old man following stealthily, listen- 
ing to our conversation. We ordered him to halt ; but 
he ran away with wonderful agility for a septuagena- 
rian. 

The moment he was out of sight, we left the road, and 
ran, too, in an opposite direction, fast as our tired limbs 
could carry us. It would be a very nice point to deter- 
mine which was the more frightened, we or our late pur- 
suer. We afterward learned that he was an unrelenting 
Rebel and a zealous Home Guard. He was doubtless en- 
deavoring to follow us to our shelter, that he might bring 
out his company, and capture us during the day. 

Long after daylight we continued running, until we 
had pat five miles between ourselves and the road. The 
region was very open, and it seemed morally certain that 
we would be discovered through the barking dogs at 
some of the farm-houses. Bat about nine o'clock we 
halted in a pine-grove, small but thick, and built a great 
fire of rails, which, being very dry, emitted little smoke. 
There was danger that the blaze would be discovered ; 
but in our feeble condition we could no longer endure 
the inclemency of the weather. 



1864.] Help in the Last Extremity. 447 

VI. Friday, Deceinler 23. 

Hungry and fatigued, witli our feet to the fire, we 
could sleep an hour at a time upon the frozen ground be- 
fore the cold awakened us. When, after a waiting which 
seemed endless, the welcome darkness came at last, it 
lifted a load from our hearts ; we no longer listerled anx- 
iously for the coming of the Guard. 

Starting again, we toiled on with slow and painful 
steps. We were entering a region where slaves were 
few, and we could find no negroes. "Junius," in a high 
fever, was so weak that we were almost compelled to 
carry him, and his voice was faint as the wail of an in- 
fant. Again and again he begged us to go on, and leave 
him to rest upon the ground. We had sore apprehensions 
that it might become necessary to commit him to the first 
friends we found, and press forward without him. 

About eight o'clock Charley entered a little tavern to 
procure provisions. He assumed his favorite character 
of a Rebel soldier, on parole, going to his home in 
Wilkes County for the holidays. An old man was 
spending the night there. While supper was cooking, 
he gave to Charley a recognizing sign of the Sons of 
America. It was instantly answered ; and, stepping out- 
side, they had an interview. 

Then our new friend stealthily led his three mules 
from the tavern stable, through the fields to the road, 
placed three of us upon them, and guided us five miles, 
to the house of his brother, another strong Union man. 
The brother warmed us, fed us, and "stayed us with 
flagons' ' of apple-brand»y ; then brought out two of his 
mules, and again we pressed forward. They cautioned 
us not to intrust the secret of their assistance to any one, 
reminding us that it would be a hanging matter for them. 

So, on this cold winter night, while we were so stiff 



4:48 Carried Fifteen Miles by Friends. [i864 

and exhausted tliat we could Ibarely keep onr seats on 
the steeds they had so thoughtfully furnished, these 
kind friends conducted us fifteen miles, and left us in the 
Union settlement we were seeking, fifty miles from Salis- 
Ibury. 



1864.] Curious Confusion of JS'ames. 449 



CHAPTER XLII. 



Can snore upon the flint. 

Cymbeline. 

Montarto. But is he often thus 

lago. 'Tis evermore the prohigiie to his sleep. 

Othello. 

It was now five o' clock in tlie morning of Saturday, 
December 24tli, the seventh day of our escape. Leaving 
my companions IbeMnd, I tapped at the door of a log- 
house, 

" Come in," said a voice ; and I entered. In its one 
room the children and father were still in bed ; the wife 
■\jras already engaged in her daily duties. I asked : 

' ' Can you direct me to the widow — V ' 

' ' There are two widow §, in this neighbor- 
hood," she replied. "What is your name ?" 

I was" seeking information, just then, not giving it; 
so avoiding the question, I added : 

' ' The lady I mean, lias a son who is an otficer in the 
army." 

' ' They both, have sons who are officers in the army. 
Don't be afraid ; you are amoiig friends." 

" Friends" might mean Union or it might mean Rebel ; 
so I accepted no amendments, but adhered to the main 
question : . ' 

"This ofiicer is a lieutenant, and his name is John." 

"Well," said she, "they are both lieutenants, and 
John is the name of both !" 

I knew my man too well to be baffled. I continued : 

29 



450 Food, Shel-j^er, and Hosts of Friends. [i8C4. 

"He is in tlie second regiment of the Senior Reserves ; 
and is now on duty at ." 

" Oil," said slie, "that is my Ibrother !" 

At once I told her what we were. She replied, with a 
wonderful light of welcome shining in her eyes : 

" If you are Yankees, all I have to say is, that yon 
have come to exactly the right place !" • 

And, in exuberant joy, she hustled about, doing a dozen 
things at once, talking incoherently the while, replenish- 
ing the fire, bringing me a seat, offering me food, urging 
her husband to hurry out for the rest of the party. At 
last her excitement culminated in her darting under the 
bed, and reappearing on the surface with, a great pint 
tumbler filled to the brim with apple-brandy. There was 
enough to intoxicate our whole party ! It was the first 
form of hospitality which occurred to her. Afterward^ 
when better acquainted, she explained : 

"You were the first Yankee I ever saw. The momeni 
I observed your clothing, I knew you must be one, and 
I wanted to throw *my arms about your neck, and kiss 
you!" 

We heartily reciprocated the feeling. Just then the 
only woman who had any charms for us was the Goddess 
of Liberty ; and this, at least, was one of her hand- 
maidens. 

We were soon by the great log fire of a house where 
friends awaited us. Belonging to the secret Union organ- 
ization, they had received intelligence that we were on 
the way. Oiir feet were blistered and swollen ; mine 
were frostbitten. We removed our clothing, and were 
soon reposing in soft feather beds. At noon, awakened 
for breakfast, we found "Junius" had been sleeping like 
a child, and was now hungry — a relief- to our anxiety. 
After the meal was over, we returned to bed. 



1864.] . Loyalty of the Mountaineers. 451 

Our friends were constantly on the alert ; l3ut tlie 
honse was very secluded, and they were not compelled to 
watch crutside. There, two ferocious dogs were on guard, 
rendering it unsafe for any one to come within a hundred 
yards of them. Nearly all the people, Loyal and Rebel,! 
had similar sentinels. Along the route, we had "been 
anathematizing the canine race, which often prevented us 
from approaching negro-quarters on the plantations ; Ibut 
these were Union dogs, which made all the difference in 
the world. 

«At dark, we were conducted to albarn, where, wrapped 
in quilts, we passed a comfortable night. 

VIII. Sunday, December 25. 

Our resting-place was in Wilkes County, North Caro- 
lina, among the outlying spurs of the Alleghanies — a 
county so strong in its Union sentiments, that the Reb- 
els called it "the Old United States." Among the moun- 
tains of every Southern State, a vast majority of the 
people were loyal. Hilly regions, unadapted to cotton- 
culture, contained few negroes ; and where there was no 
Slavery, there was no Rebellion. Milton' s verse — 

"The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty," 

contains a great truth, the world over. 

Our self-sacrificing friends belonged to a multitudin- 
ous family, extending through a settlement many miles 
in length. They all seemed to be nephews, cousins, or 
brothers ; and the white-haired patriarch — at seventy, 
erect and agile as a boy, — in whose barn we remained 
to-day, was father, grandfather, or uncle, to the whole 
tribe. His loyalty was very stanch and intense. 

"The Home Gfuards," said he, "are usually pretty 
civil. Occasionally they shoot at some of the boj^s who 



452 A Levee in a Barn. [1864. 

are hiding ; "but pretty soon afterward, one of them is 
found in the woods some morning with a hole in his 
head ! I suppose there are a thousand youhg men 
lying out in this county. I have always urged them 
to fight the Guards, and have helped to supply them 
with ammunition. Two or three times, regiments from 
Lee' s army have been sent here to hunt conscripts and 
deserters, and then the boys have to run. I have a 
son among them ; but they never wounded him yet. I 
asked him the other day : ' Won't you kill some of them 
before you are ever captured V ' Well, father,' says he, 
^ I'll de found a tryiriJ P I reckon he will, too ; for he 
has never gone without his rifle these two years, and he 
can bring down a squirrel every time, from the top of yon 
oak you see on the hill." 

The barn was beside a public road, and very near the 
house of a woman whose Rebel sympathies were strong. 
There was danger that any one entering it might be seen 
by her or her children, who were running about the 
yard. 

But we held quite a levee to-day. I think we had 
fifty visitors; We would hear the opening door and 
stealthy footsteps upon the barn-floor ; then a soft voice 
would ask : 

" Friends, are you there ?" 

We would rise from our bed of hay, and come forward 
to the front of the loft, to find some member of this great 
family of friends, who had brought his wife and children 
to see the Yankees. We would converse with them for 
a few minutes ; they would invariably ask if there was 
nothing whatever they could do for us, invite us to visit 
their house by night, and express the warmest wishes 
for our success. They did this with such perfect sponta- 
neity, -with such overflowing hearts, that it touched us 



1864] YlSITED BY AN OlD FrIEND. 453 

yerj nearly. Had we Ibeen their own sons or brothers, 
they could not have treated ns more tenderly. ' This 
Christmas may have witnessed more brilliant gatherings 
than ours ; "but none, I am sure, warmed by a more self- 
sacrificing friendship. 

Among others, we were visited by a conscript, who 
had been one of our guards at Salisbury. While at the 
prison, his great portly form would come laboring and 
pufiing up the stairs to our quarters- ; with flushed face, 
he would sit down, glance cautiously around to assure 
himself that none but friends were present, then question 
us eagerly about the ISforth, and breathe out maledictions 
against all Confederates. 

The Rebels, suspecting him, determined to send him to 
Lee's army. But he was just then taken with rheuma- 
tism, and kept his quarters for six weeks ! At last, the 
day before he was to start for Richmond, he obtained per- 
mission of the surgeon to visit the village. He hobbled 
up the street, groaning piteously ; but, after turning the 
first corner, threw away his crutches, plunged into the 
woods, and made his way home by night. He now re- 
lated his experiences with a quiet chuckle, and was very 
desirous of serving us. 

He was able to give me a pair of large boots in place 
of my own, which lacerated my sore and swollen feet. 
The sharp rocks, hills, and stumps, compelled me to have 
the new boots repaired seven times before reaching our 
lines. Two nights' -traveling would quite wear out the 
ill-tanned leather of the stoutest soles. 

To-day, our friends brought us twice as much food as 
we wanted, and we wanted a great deal. At dark, 
alarmed by a rumor that the suspicions of the Guard 
had been excited, they took us several miles into a neigh- 
boring county, to a very secluded house, occupied by the 



454 A Day of Alarms. [i864. 

wife and daughters of an officer in tlie Confederate army. 
Here we spent the night in inviting beds. 

IX. Monday, December 26. 

Our hostess, a comely lady of thirty-five, was a second 
Mrs. Katie Scudder — the very embodiment of "Faculty." 
Her plain log house, with its snowy curtains, cheap prints, 
and engravings cut from illustrated newspapers, was 
tasteful and inviting. Her five daughters, all clothed in 
fabric spun and woven at home — ^for these people were 
now entirely self-dependent — looked as pretty and tidy 
to uncritical, masculine eyes, as if robed in silk and cash- 
mere. 

Our pursuit of a quiet refuge proved ludicrously un- 
successful. The day was diversified, by • 

" More pangs and fears than wars or women have." 

But the lady bore herself with such coolness, and proved 
so ready for every emergency, that we enjoyed them ra- 
ther than otherwise. 

Early in the morning, while standing a few yards 
from the house, I saw her and her daughter sud- 
denly step into the open doorway, quite filling it with 
their persons and skirts, and earnestly beckon me to go 
in out of sight. Of course, I obeyed. A woman of ques- 
tionable political soundness had called ; but they attracted 
her in another direction, keeping her face turned away 
from the door, till I was lost to sight. 

Several parties of Rebel cavalry passed down the road. 
Breckinridge' s army, in the mountains above, had recent- 
ly dissolved in a great thaw and break-up, and these 
were the small fragments of ice floating down toward Vir- 
ginia. A squad of a dozen stopped and entered the 
liouse, which was of one story, the length of three largo 



1864.] Eeady Wit of a Woman. 455 

rooms. But tlie lady kept tliem in the kitclien, wMle we 
were slint in the other end of the "building, , 

J^Text, the barking dog warned us of approaching foot- 
steps. At her suggestion, we went up into the corn-loffc, 
above our apartment. The new visitor was a neighbor, 
to whom she owed a bushel of corn, and who, with his 
ox-cart, had come to collect it. With ready woman's 
wit, she said to him : 

" You know my husband is away. I have no fuel. 
Won't you go and haul me a load of wood, as a Christ- 
mas present?" 

Who could resist such a feminine appeal ? The 
neighbor went for the wood, -while she came laughing 
in, to tell us her stratagem. We descended from the 
corn-loft, and went into d back room, where there were 
two beds, one large and the other small, with an open 
door between them. Four of us crept under the large 
bed, one under the small one ; and here we had an expe- 
rience, ludicrous enough to remember, but not so pleasant 
to undergo. 

One of our party was an inveterate snorer. Whenever 
he took a recumbent position, with his head upon the 
ground or the floor, he would begin snoring like a steam- 
engine. Like all persons of that class, when reminded of 
it, he steadfastly vowed that he never snored *in all his 
life ! For a time, he regarded our awakening him, with 
rebuke and caution, as a sorry practical joke. 

Thus far, I believe our danger of detection had 
been greater from this source than from any other. 
We had always traveled in single file, almost like 
specters, with our leader thrown out as far ahead as 
we could keep him in view. Whenever he thought he 
saw danger, he raised a warning hand ; every man 
passed the sign back to those in his rear, and dropped 



456 Danger of Detection from Snoring. [i864, 

quietly beliind a log, or stepped into the Ibushes, until 
the persoji had passed or the alarm was explained. We. 
walked with softest footsteps, no man coughing, or 
speaking above his breath. During the day we were 
often concealed in very public places, only a few feet 
from the road, where, the ground being covered with 
snow, we could not hear approaching footsteps. 

Now, our musical companion chanced to go under the 
small bed, and in three minutes we heard his trumpet- 
tongued snore. At first,, we whispered to him ; but we 
might as well have talked to N'iagara. If one of us went 
to him, there was danger that the neighbor, who stood 
upon the front porch, would see us through the open door ; 
but if we did not, that fatal snore was certain to be heard. 
So I darted across the room, c'rept in beside my friend, 
and kept him well shaken until the danger was over. 

At night, the lady told us that more people had come to 
her house during the day than ever visited it in a month 
before ; and we were marched back through the darkness, 
to our first place of concealment. 

, X. Tuesday, December 27. 

In the barn through the whole day. A messenger 
brought us a note from two late fellow-prisoners, Captain 
William "Boothby, a Philadelphia mariner, and Mr. John 
Mercer, a Unionist, of Newbern, North Carolina, who had 
been in duress almost three years. They were now hid- 
ing in a barn two miles from us. They escaped from Salis- 
bury two nights later than we, j)aying the guards eight 
hundred dollars in Confederate money to let them out. 

Thurston at once joined them. During the rest of the 
journey, we sometimes traveled and hid together for sev- 
eral days and nights ; but, when there was special danger, 
divided into two companies, one keeping twenty- four 



1864.] Promises to aid Suffering Comrades. 457 

lionrs in advance — the smaller the party, the less peril 
being involved- 
No w, for tlie first time, we l)egan to have some hope 
of reaching our lines. But the road was still very long, 
and fraught with many dangers. We examined the appall- 
ing list of dead, which I had brought from Salisbury, and 
talked much of our companions left behind in that living 
entombment. Remembering how earnestly they longed 
and prayed'* for some intelligent, trustworthy voice to 
bear to the Government and the people tidings of their 
terrible condition, we pledged each other very solemnly, 
that if any one of us lived to regain home and freedom, 
he should use earnest, unremitting efforts to excite sym- 
pathy and secure relief for them. 

Jt may not be out of place here to say, that upon 
reaching the North, before visiting our families, or per- 
forming any other duties, we hastened to Washington, and 
used every endeavor to call the attention of the authorities 
and the country to the Salisbuiy prisoners. Before many 
weeks, all who survived were exchanged ; but more than 
five thousand — upwards of half the number who w^re 
taken to Salisbury five months before — were already 
buried just outside the garrison. 

Those five thousand loyal graves will ever remain fit- 
ting monuments of Rebel cruelty, and of the atrocious 
inhumanity of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, who 
steadfastly refused to exchange these prisoners, on the 
ground that we could not afford to give the enemy robust, 
vigorous men for invalids and skeletons, and yet re- 
frained from compelling them to treat prisoners with 
humanity, by just and discriminating retaliation upon an 
equal number of Rebel officers, taken from the great ex- 
cess held by our G.overnment. 

To-day, as usual, we saw a large number of the Union 



458 Blind and Unquestioning Loyalty. [i864 

mountaineers. Theirs was a very blind and unreason- 
ing loyalty, much like the disloyalty of some enthusiastic 
Rebels. They did not say "Unionist," or "Secessionist," 
but always designated a political friend thus: "He is 
one of the right sort of people " — strong in the faith that 
there could, by no possibility, be more than one side to 
the question. They had little education ; but when they 
began to talk about the Union, their eyes lighted wonder- 
fully, and sometimes they grew really eloquent. They did 
not believe one word in a Rebel newspaper, except ex- 
tracts from the Northern journals, and reports favorable 
to our Cause. They thought the Union army had never 
been defeated in a single battle. I heard them say repeat- 
edly : 

"The United States can take Richmond any day wJien 
it wants to. That it has not, thus far, is owing to no lack 
of power, but because it was not thought best." 

They regarded every Rebel as necessarily an unmiti- 
gated scoundrel, and every Loyalist, particularly ef'ery 
native-born Yankee, almost as an angel from heaven. 

How earnestly they questioned us about the North ! 
How they longed to escape thither ! To them, indeed, it 
Was the Promised Land. They were very bitter in their 
denunciations of the heavy slaveholders, who had done 
so much to degrade white labor, and finally brought on 
this terrible war. 

They had an abundance of the two great Southern 
Staples — corn-bread and pork. They felt severely the 
absence of their favorite beverage, and would ask us, 
with amusing earnestness, if they could get coffee when 
our armies came. The Confederate substitutes — burnt 
corn and rye — they regarded with earnest and well- 
founded aversion. 

They were compelled to use thorns for fastening the 



1864.] A Repentant Rebel. 459 

clothing of the women and children. We distributed 
among them our small supply of pins, to their infinite 
delectation. Davis also gladdened the hearts of all the 
womankind Iby disbursing a needle to each. A needle 
nominally represented five dollars in Confederate cur- 
rency, but actually could not be purchased at any price. 

A number of the young men "lying out" desired to 
accompany us to the North. Some were deserters from 
the Rebel army ; others, more fortunate, had evaded con- 
scription from the beginning of the war. But their lives 
had been passed in that remote county of JS'orth Carolina, 
and the two hundred and ninety miles yet to be accom- 
plished stretched out in^ appalling prospective. They saw 
many lions in the way, and, Festus-like, at the last mo- 
ment, decided to wait for a more convenient season. It 
was not from lack of nerve ; for some of them had fought 
Rebel guards with great coolness and bravery. 

Our friends feared that one slaveholding Secessionist 
in the neighborhood might learn of our presence, and 
betray us. He did ascertain our whereabouts, but sent 
us an invitation to visit his house, offering to supply all 
needed food, clothing, and shelter. He said he foolishly 
acquiesced in the Revolution because at first it seemed 
certain to succeed, and he Wished to save his property ; 
but that now he heartily repented. 

Possibly his conversion was partially owing to re- 
morse for having persuaded his two sons to enter the 
Rebel army. One, after much suffering, had deserted, 
and was now "lying out" near home. The other, 
wounded and captured in a Virginia battle, was still in a 
JSTorthern prison, where he had been confined for many 
months. The father was very desirous of sending to him 
a message of sympathy and affection. 

But he was an index of the change which had 



460 Sanguine Hopes of Loyal Mountaineers. [i864. 

recently come over Rebel sympathizers in that whole 
region. The condition of our ai;mies then was not pecu- 
liarly promising. We. were by no means sanguine that 
the war would soon terminate. But the loyal mountain- 
eers, with unerring instinct, were all confident that we 
were near its close, and constantly surj)rised us hy speak- 
ing of the Rebellion as a thing of the past. We fancied 
their wish was father to the thought ; but they proved 
truer prophets than we. 



1864.] Flanking a Rebel Camp. 461 



CHAPTER XLIII. 



Nay, but make haste, the better foot before. 

King Johx. 



On" tlie evening of the eleventh day, Wednesday, 
December 28, we left the kind friends with whom we 
had stayed for five days and four nights, gaining new 
vigor and inspired by new hope. Their last injunction 
was: 

"Remember, you cannot be too careful. We shall 
pray God that you may reach your homes in safety. 
When you are there, do not forget us, but do send troops 
to open a way by which we can escape to the ISTorth.'' 

In their simplicity, they fancied Yankees omnipo- 
tent, and that we could send them an army by merely 
saying the word. They bade us adieu with embraces 
and tears. 1 am sure many a fervent prayer went up 
from their humble hearths, that Our Father would 
guide us through the difficulties of our long, wearisome 
journey, and guard us against the perils which beset and 
environed it. 

At ten o' clock we passed within two hundred yards 
of a Rebel camp. We could hear the neigh of the 
horses and the tramp of four or five sentinels on their 
rounds. We trod very softly ; to our stimulated senses 
every sound was magnified, and every cracking twig 
startled us. 

Leaving us in the road a few yards behind, our pilot 
entered the house of his friend, a young deserter from the 
Rebel army. Finding no one there but the family, he 



462 Secreted among the Husks. [i864. 

called us in, to rest by the log fire, while the deserter 
rose from hed, and donned his clothing to lead us 
three miles and point out a secluded path. For many 
months he had been "lying out;" but of late, as the 
Guards were less vigilant than usual, he sometimes 
ventured to sleep at home. His girlish wife wished him 
to accompany us through ; but, with the infant sleeping 
in the cradle, which was hewn out of a great log, she 
formed a tie too strong for him to break. At parting, 
she shook each of us by the hand, saying : 

" I hope you will get safely home ; but there is great 
danger, and you must be powerful cautious." 

At eleven o' clock our guide left us in the hands of 
a negro, who, after our chilled limbs were warmed, led us 
on our way. By two in the morning we had accom- 
plished thirteen miles over the frozen hills, and reached 
a lonely house in a deep valley, beside a tumbling, flash- 
ing torrent. 

The farmer, roused with difficulty from his heavy 
slumbers, informed us that Boothby' s party, which had 
arrived twenty-four hours in advance of us, was sleep- 
ing in his barn. He sent us half a mile to the house of 
a neighbor, who fanned the dying embers on his great 
hearth, regaled us with the usual food,, and then took us 
to a barn in the forest. 

"Climb up on that scaffolding," said he. "Among 
the husks you will find two oir thi^ee quilts. They be- 
long to my son, who is lying out. To-night he is sleep- 
ing with some friends in the woods." 

The cold wind blew searchingly through the open 
barn, but before daylight we were wrapped in "the 
mantle that covers all human thoughts." 



* 1864] Wandering from the Hoad. 463 

XII. Thursday, December 29. 

At dark, our host, leaving ns in a thicket, five 
hundred yards from his house, went forward to recon- 
noiter. Finding the coast clear, he beckoned us on to 
supper and ample potations of apple-brandy. 

With difficulty we induced one of his neighbors to 

guide us. Though unfamiliar with the road, he was an 

- excellent walker, swiftly leading us over the rough 

ground, which tortured our sensitive feet, and up and 

down sharp, rocky hills. 

At two in the morning we flanked Wilkesboro, the 
capital of Wilkes County. To a chorus of barking dogs, 
we crept softly around it, within a few hundred yards of 
the houses. The air was full of snow, and when we 
reached the hills again, the biting wind was hard to 
breathe. 

We walked about a mile through the dense woods, 
when Captain Wolfe, who had been all the time declar- 
ing that the North Star was on the wrong side of us, con- 
vinced our pilot that he had mistaken the road, and we 
retraced our steps to the right thoroughfare. 

We stopped to warm for half an hour at a negro- 
cabin, where the blacks told us all they knew about the 
routes and the Rebels. Before morning we were greatly 
broken down, and our guide was again in doubt concern- 
ing the roads. So we entered a deep ravine in the pine- 
woods, built a great fire, and waited for daylight. 

XIII. Friday, Decemler 30. 

After dawn, we pressed forward, reluctantly com- 
pelled to pass near two or three houses. 

We reached the Yadkin River just as a young, 
blooming woman, with a face like a ripe apple, came 
gliding across the stream. With a long pole, she guided 



464 Ckossing the Yadkin River. [i864 ' 

the great log canoe, wMcli contained herself, a pail of 
butter, and a side-saddle, indicating that she had started 
for the Wilkeshoro market. Assisting her to the shore, 
we asked : 

" Will you tell us where Ben Hanhy lives V^ 

"Just heyond the hill there, across the river," she 
replied, with scrutinizing, suspicious eyes. 

"How far is it to his house 1" ' 

"I don't know." 

" More than a mile ?" 

"No" (doubtfully), " I reckon not." 

"Is he probably at home ?" 

"No!" (emphatically). "He is tio^.' Are J^ou the 
Home Guard?" 

"By no means, madam. We are Union men, and 
Yankees at that. We have escaped from Salisbury, and 
are trying to reach our homes in the North." 

After another searching glance, she trusted us fully, 
and said : 

"Ben Hanby is my husband. He is lying out. I 
wondered, if you were the Guard, what you could be 
doing without guns. From a hill near our house, the 
children saw you coming more than an hour ago ; and 
my husband, taking you for the soldiers, went with his 
rifle to join his companions in the woods. Word has 
gone to every Union house in the neighborhood that the 
troops are out hunting deserters.^' 

We embarked in the log canoe, and shipped a good 
deal of water before reaching the opposite shore. We 
had two sea-captains on b5ard, and concluded that, with 
one sailor more, we should certainly have been hope- 
lessly wrecked. 

A winding forest-path led to the lonely house we 
sought, where we found no one at home, except three chil- 



1864.] Among Union Bushwhackers. 465 

dren of our fair informant and tlieir grandmother. For 
more than two hours we could not allay the woman's 
suspicions that we were Guards. They had recently 
been adopting Yankee disguises, deceiving Union peo- 
ple, and beguiling them of damaging information. 

As indignantly as General Damas inquires whether he 
looks like a married man, we asked the cautious woman 
if we resembled Rebels. At last, convinced that we 
were veritable Yankees, she gave us breakliist, and sent 
one of the children with us to a sunny hillside among 
the pines, where we slept off the weariness and soreness 
caused by the night' s march of sixteen miles. 

At evening a number of friends visited us. As they 
were not merely Rebel deserters, but Union bushwhack- 
ers also, we scanned them with curiosity ; for we had 
been wont to regard bushwhackers, of either side, with 
vague, undefined horror. 

These men were walking arsenals. Each had a trusty 
rifle, one or two navy revolvers, a great bowie knife, 
haversack, and canteen. Their manners were quiet, their 
faces honest, and one had a voice of rare sweetness. 
As he stood tossing his baby in the air, with his little 
daughter clinging to his skirt, he looked 

■ " tlie mildest-mannered man, 



That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat." 

He and his neighbors had adopted this mode of life, 
because determined not to fight against the old flag. 
They would not attempt the uncertain journey to our 
lines, leaving their families in the country of the enemy. 
Ordinarily very quiet and rational, whenever the war was 
spoken of, tlieir eyes emitted that peculiar glare which I 
had observed, years before, in Kansas, and which seems 
inseparable from the hunted man. They said : 

30 



466 Two Union Soldiers " Lying Out." [i864. 

"When tlie Rebels let us alone, we let them alone ; 
wlien they come out to hunt us, we hunt them ! They 
know that we are in earnest, and that before they can 
kill any one of us. he will break a hole in the ice large 
enough to drag two or three of them along with him. 
At night we sleep in the bush. When we go home by 
day, our children stand out on picket. They and our 
wi\^es bring food to us in the woods. When the Guards 
are coming out, some of the Union members usually in- 
form us beforehand ; then we collect twenty or thirty 
men, find the best ground we can, and, if they discover 
ns, fight them. But a number of skirmishes have 
taught them to be very Avary about attacking us." 

In this dreary mode of life they seemed to find a cer- 
tain liiscination. While we took supper at the house of 
one of them, eight bushwhackers, armed to the teeth, 
Btood outside on guard. For once, at least, enjoying 
what Macbeth vainly coveted, we took our meal in peace. 

Two of them were United States volunteers, who had 
come stealthily home on furlough, from our army in Ten- 
nessee. They were the first Union soldiers we had seen 
at liberty for nearly two years. Their faces were very 
welcome, and their worn, soiled uniforms were to our 
eyes the reflection of heaven's own blue. Our friends 
urged us to remain, one of them saying : 

"The snow is deep on the Blue Ridge and the Alle- 
ghanies ; the Rebels can easily trace you ; the guerrillas 
are unusually vigilant, and it is very unsafe to attempt 
crossing the mountains at present. I started for Knox- 
ville three weeks ago, and, after walking fifty miles, was 
compelled to turn back. Stay with us until the snow is 
gone, and the Guards less on the alert. We will each of 
us take two of you under our special charge, and feed 
and shelter you until next May, if you desire it." 



1864] Two Escaping Rebel Desekters. 467 

The Blue Ridge was still twenty-five miles away, and 
we determined to push on to a point where we could look 
the danger, if danger there were, directly in the face. 
The bushwhackers, therefore, piloted us through the 
darkness and the "bitter cold for seven miles. At mid- 
night, we reached the dwelling of a Union man. He 
said : 

" As the house is unsafe, I shall be compelled to put 
you in my "barn. You will find two Rebel deserters 
sleeping there." 

The barn was upon a high hiU. We burrowed among 
the husks, at first to the infinite alarm of the deserters, 
who thought the Philistines were upon them. "While we 
shivered in the darkness, they told us that they had come 
from Petersburg — more than five hundred miles — and 
been three months on the journey. They had found 
friends all the way, among negroes and "Union men. 
Ragged, dirty, and penniless, they said, very quietly, 
that they were going to reach the Yankee lines, or die in 
the attempt. 

Before daylight our host visited us, and finding that we 
suffered from the weather, placed us in a little warm store- 
house, close beside the public road. To our question, 
whether the Guards had ever searched it, he replied : 

" Oh, yes, frequently, but they never happened to find 
anybody." 

After we were snugly ensconced in quilts and corn- 
stalks, Davis said : 

" What an appalling journey still stretches before us ! 
I fear the lamp of my energy is nearly burned out." 

I could not wonder at his despondency. For several 
years he had been half an invalid, suffering from a spinal 
affection. For weeks before leaving Salisbury, he was 
often compelled, of an afternoon, to lie upon his bunk of 



468 An Energetic Invalid. [ise*. 

straw witli blinding headache, and every nerve quiver- 
ing with pain. "Junius" and myself frequently said: 
"Davis's courage is unbounded, "but he can never live 
to walk to Knoxville." 

The event proved us false prophets. Nightly he led 
our party — always the last to pause and the first to start. 
His lamp of energy was so far from being exhausted that, 
before he reached our lines, he broke down every man in 
the party. I expect to suffer to my dying day from the 
killing pace of that energetic invalid. 

XrV. Saturday, December 31. 

Spent all this cold day and night sleeping in the quilts 
and fodder of the little store-house. At evening, Booth- 
by's party went forward, as the next thirty-five miles 
were deemed specially perilous. 



1865.] Money Concealed in Clothing. 469 



CHAPTER XLIT. 

Pray you tread aoftly, that the blind mole may not 
Hear a foot-fall ! 

Tbmpest. 

There's but a shirt and a half in all my company, and the half shirt Is two napkins pinned 
together and thrown over the shoulders. 

King Henrt IV. 

Our emaciated condition, liard labor, -and the Ibracing 
mountain air, conspired to make ns ravenous. In quan- 
tity, the pork and corn-lbread which we devoured was 
almost miraculous ; in quality, it seemed like the nectar 
and ambrosia of the immortal gods. It was far better 
adapted to our necessities than the daintiest luxuries of 
civilization. In California, Australia, and Colorado gold- 
mines, on the New Orleans leme^ and wherever else the 
most trying physical labor is to be performed, pork and 
corn-bread have been found the best articles of food. 

The Loyalists were all ready to feed, shelter, and direct 
us, but reluctant to accompany us far from their homes. 
They would say : 

"You need no.guides ; the road is so plain, that yon 
cannot possibly miss it." 

But midnight journeys among the narrow lanes and 
obscure mountain-paths had taught us that we could miss 
any road whatever which was not inclosed upon both 
sides by fences too high for climbing. Therefore, we in- 
sisted upon pilots. 

Fortunately, I had left Salisbury with a one-hundred- 
dollar United States note concealed under the hem of each 
leg of my pantaloons, just above the instep, and two more 
sewn in the lining of my coat. I had in my portmonnaie 



470 Imminent Peril of Union Citizens. [ises. 

fifty dollars in Northern "bank-notes, five dollars in gold, 
and a hundred dollars in Confederate currency. Davis 
brought away about the same amount. We should have 
left it with our fellow-prisoners, but for the probability 
of being recaptured and confined, where money would 
serve us in our extremest need. Now it enabled us to 
remunerate amply both our white and black friends. 
Sometimes the mountaineers would say : 

' ' We do not do these things for money. We have fed 
and assisted hundreds of refugees and escaping prison- 
ers, but never received a cent for it." 

Those whom they befriended were usually penniless. 
We appreciated their kindness none the less because for- 
tunate enough to be able to recompense them. They 
were unable to resist the argument that, when our forces 
came, they would need ' ' green-backs' ' to purchase coffee. 

Every man who gave us a meal, sheltered us in his 
house or barn, pointed out a refuge in the woods, or 
directed us one mile upon our journey, did it at the cer- 
tainty, if discovered, of being imprisoned, or forced into 
the Rebel army, whether sick or well, and at the risk of 
having his house burned over his head. In many cases, 
discovery would have resulted in his death by shooting, 
or hanging in sight of his own door. 

During our whole journey we entered only one house 
inhabited by white Unionists, which had never been 
plundered by Home Guards or Rebel guerrillas. Almost 
every loyal family had given to the Cause some of its 
nearest and dearest. We were told so frequently — "My 
father was killed in those woods ;" or, " The guerrillas 
shot my brother in that ravine," that, finally, these trage- 
dies made little impression upon us. The mountaineers 
never seemed conscious that they were doing any 
heroic or self-sacrificing thing. Their very sufferings 



1865.] Fording Creeks at Midnight. 471 

liad greatly intensilied their love for the Union, and their 
faith in its ultimate triumph. 

Drowsily wondering at our capacity for sleep, we 
dozed through the first day of the New Year, and the 
fifteenth of our liberty. After dark we spent two houra 
in the house before the log lire. The good woman had 
one son already escaped to the North — a fresh link which 
bound her mother-heart to that ideal paradise. She fed 
ns, mended our clothing, and parted from us with the 
heartiest "God bless you !" 

Her youngest born, a lad of eleven years, accom- 
panied us five miles to the house of a Unionist, who 
received us without leaving his bed. He gave us such 
minute information about the faint, obscure road that we 
found little difficulty in keeping it. 

Through the biting air we pressed rapidly up the nar- 
row valley of a clear, tumbling mountain stream, whose 
frowning banks, several hundred feet in hight, 
were covered with pines and hemlocks. In twelve miles 
the road crossed the creek twenty-nine times. Instead 
of bridges were fords for horsemen and wagons, and 
foot-logs for pedestrians. Cold and stiff, we discovered 
that crossing the smooth, icy logs in the darkness was a 
hazardous feat. Wolfe was particularly lame, and slip- 
ped several times into the icy torrent, but managed to 
flounder out without much delay. He endured with 
great serenity all our suggestions, that even though water 
was his native element, he had a very eccentric taste to pre- 
fer swimming to walking, in that state of the atmosphere. ' 

At one crossing the log was swept away. We wan- 
dered up and down the stream, which was about a hun- 
dred feet wide, but could find not even the hair which 
Mahomet discovered to be the bridge over the bottomless 
pit. But as canoes are older than ships, so legs are more 



472 " Looped and Windowed Raggedness." [ises 

primitive than bridges. We e'en plunged in, waist 
deep, and waded throngh, among the cakes of floating ice. 

Our wardrobes were suffering quite as much as our 
persons. We did not carry looking-glasses, so I am not 
able to speak of myself ; but my colleague was a subject 
for a painter. Any one seeing him must have been con- 
vinced that he was made up for the occasion ; that his 
looped and windowed raggedness never could have re- 
sulted from any natural combination of circumstances. 
The fates seemed to decree that as "Junius" went naked 
into the Confederacy (leaving most of his wardrobe on 
deposit at the bottom of the Mississippi), he should come 
out of it in the same condition. 

Overcoat he had none. Pantaloons had been torn to 
shreds and tatters by the brambles and thorn-bushes. 
He had a hat which was not all a hat. It was given 
to him, after he had lost his own in a Rebel barn, by a 
warm-hearted African, as a small tribute from the Intelli- 
gent Contraband to his old friend the Reliable Oentleman 
— by an African who felt with the most touching pro- 
priety that it would be a shame for any correspondent of 
TJie Tribune to go bareheaded as long as a single negro 
In America was the owner of a hat ! It was a white wool 
relic of the old-red-sandstone period, with a sugar-loaf 
crown, and a broad brim drawn down closely over his 
ears, like the bonnet of an Esquimaux. 

His boots were a stupendous refutation of the report 
that leather was scarce among the Rebels. I understood 
it to be no figure of rhetoric, but the result of actual 
and exact measurement, which induced him to call them 
the "Seven-Leaguers." The small portion of his body, 
which was visible between the tops of his boots and the 
bottom of his hat, was robed in an old gray quilt of 
Secession proclivities ; and taken for all in all, with his 



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18G5.] Stories about the War. 473 

pale, nervous face and Ms remarkable costume, lie 
looked like a cross between the Genius of Intellectuality 
and a Rebel bushwhacker ! 

Before daylight, we shiveringly tapped on the door of 
a house at the foot of the Blue Ridge. 

"Come in," was the welcome response. 

Entering, Ave found a woman sitting by the log fire. 
Beginning to introduce ourselves, she interrupted : 

" O, I know all about you. You are Yankee prison- 
ers. Your friends who passed last evening told us you 
were coming, and I have been sitting up all night for 
you. Come to the fire and dry your clothes." 

For two hours we listened to her tales of the war. 
The history of almost every Union family was full of 
romance. Each unstoried mountain stream had its inci- 
dents of daring, of sagacity, and of faithfulness ; and 
almost every green hill had been bathed in that scarlet 
dew from which ever springs the richest and the ripest 
fruit. 

Concealment here was difficult ; so we were taken to 
the house of a neighbor, who also was waiting to wel- 
come us. He took us to his storehouse, right by the 
road-side. 

"The Guard," said he, "searched this building last 
Thursday, unsuccessfully, and are hardly likely to try 
it again just yet." 

Soon, lying near a fire upon a warm feather-bed, we 
wooed the drowsy god with all the success which the 
hungry Salisbury vermin, sticking closer than brothers, 
would permit. 

JtVi. Monday, January 2. 

Before night the guide returned from conducting 
Boothby's party, and assured us that the coast was 



474 Climbing the Blue Ridge. [issa. 

clear. After dark, invigorated loy tea and apple l)randy, 
we followed onr pilot by devious paths np the steep, 
fir-clad, piny slope of the Blue Ridge. 

The view from the summit is beautiful and impres- 
sive ; but for our weariness and anxiety, we should 
have enjoyed it very keenly. 

A few weeks before, the Unionist now leading us had 
sent his little daughter of twelve years, alone, by night, 
fifteen miles over the mountains, to warn some escaping 
Union prisoners that the Guard had gained a clue to 
their whereabouts. They received the warning in sear 
son to find a place of safety before their pursuers came. 

We were now on the west side of the Ridge. A 
heavy rain began to fall, and, though soaked and weary, 
we were glad to have our tracks obliterated, and thus be 
insured against pursuit. 

" The labor we delight in physics paan ;" 

but in this case the effort was so arduous that the panacea 
was not very effective. Thomas Starr King tells the 
story of a little man, who, being asked his weight, re- 
plied : 

" Ordinarily, a hundred and twenty pounds ; but 
when I'm mad, I weigh a ton !" 

I think any one of our wet, blistered feet, which, at 
every step, sunk deep into the slush, would have coun- 
terbalanced his whole body ! Like millstones we dragged 
them up hill after hill, and through the long valleys 
which stretched drearily between. Though not hunger- 
ing after the flesh-pots of Egypt, we still thought, half 
regretfully, of our squalid Salisbury quarters, where we 
had at least a roof to shelter us, and a bunk of straw. 
But we needed no injunction to remember Lot's wife 5 
for a pillar of salt would have represented a fabulous 



1865.] Crossing the New River at Midnight. 475 

sum of money in tlie currency of the Rebels ; and we 
had no desire to swell their scanty revenues or supply 
their impoverished commissary department. 

At midnight we reached New River, two hundred and 
fifty yards wide. Our guide took us over, one at a time, 
"behind him upon his horse. We were probably five 
hundred miles above the point where this river, as the 
Great Kanawha, unites with the Ohio ; but it was the 
first stream we had found running northward, and its 
soft, rippling song of home and freedom was very sweet 
to our ears. Already our Promised Land stretched be- 
fore us, and the shining river seemed a pathway of light 
to its hither boundary. Better than Abana and Pharpar, 
rivers of Damascus, this was the Jordan, flowing toward 
all we loved and longed for. It revived the great world 
of work and of life which had faded almost to fable. 

At two in the morning we reached the house of a 
stanch Unionist, which nestled romantically in the 
green valley, inclosed on all sides by dark mountains. 

Our new friend, herculean in frame and with a heavy- 
tragedy voice, came out where we sat, dripping and 
dreary, under an old cotton-gin, and addressed us in a 
pompous strain, worthy of Sergeant Buzfuz : 

"Gentlemen," said he, "there are, unfortunately, at 
my house to-night two wayfarers, who are Rebels and 
traitors. If they knew of your presence, it would be 
my inevitable and eternal ruin. Therefore, unable to 
extend to you such hospitalities as I could wish, I bid 
you welcome to all which can be furnished by so poor a 
man as I. I will place you in my barn, which is warm, 
and filled with fodder. I will bring you food and apple 
brandy. In the morning, when these infernal scoun- 
drels are gone, I will entertain you under my family 
roof. Gentlemen, I have been a Union man from the 



476 Hospitality and Oratory Combined. ises. 

beginning, and I shall be a Union man to the end. I 
had three sons ; one died in a Rebel hospital ; one was 
killed at the battle of the Wilderness, fighting (against 
his will) for the Southern cause ; the third, thank God ! 
is in the Union lines." ^ 

Here the father overcame the orator ; and, with the 
conjunction of apple brandy, corn bread, and quilts, we 
were soon asleep in the barn. 



1865.] Over Mountains and Through Ravines. 477 



CHAPTER XLV. 

No tongue — all eyes ; be silent — Tempest. 

At nine in the morning our host awakened us. 

" Gentlemen, I trust you have slept well. The enemy- 
has gone, and breakfast waits. I call you early, because 
I want to take you out of North Carolina into Tennessee, 
where I will show you a place of refuge infinitely safer 
than this." 

For the first time since leaving Salisbury we traveled 
by daylight. Our guide led us deviously through fields, 
and up almost perpendicular ascents, where the rarefied 
air compelled us frequently to stop for breath. 

We dragged our weary feet up one hill, down an- 
other, through ravines of almost impenetrable laurels, 
swinging across the streams by the snowy, pendent 
boughs, only to find another appalling hight rising be- 
fore us. Nothing but the hope of freedom enabled us to 
keep on our feet. Once, when near a public road, our 
guide suddenly whispered . 

' ' Hist ! Drop to the ground instantly ! ' ' 

Lying behind logs, we saw two or three horse-teams 
and sleds pass by, and heard the conversation of the 
drivers. 

Our pilot was not agitated, for, like all the Union moun- 
taineers, danger had been so long a part of his every-day 
existence, that he had no physical nervousness. But it 
was reported that the Guards would be out to-day, so he 
was very wary and vigilant. We crossed the road in 



478 Mistaken for Confederate Guards. [ises. 

the Indian mode, walking in single file, eacli man tread- 
ing in the footsteps of Ms immediate predecessor. No 
casual observer would have suspected that it was the 
track of more than one man. 

At 4 p. M., we entered Tennessee, which, like the 
passage of the New River, seemed another long stride 
toward home. Approaching a settlement, we went far 
around through the woods, persuading ourselves that 
we were unobserved. A mile beyond we reached a 
small log house, where our friend was known, and a 
blooming, matronly woman, with genial eyes, welcomed 
us. 

" Come in, all. I am very glad to see you. I thought 
you must be Yankees when I heard of your approach, 
about half an hour ago." 

" How did you hear?" 

' ' A good many young men are lying out in this neigh- 
borhood, and my son is one of them. He has not slept 
in the house for two years. He always carries his rifle. 
At first, I was opposed to it, but now I am glad to have 
him. They may murder him any day, and if they do, I 
at least want him to kill some of the traitors first. No- 
body can approach this settlement, day or night, with- 
out being seen by some of these young men, always on 
the watch. The Guard have come in twice, at midnight, 
as fast as they could ride ; but the news traveled before 
them, and they found the birds flown. When you ap- 
peared in sight, the boys took you for Rebels. My son 
and two others, lying behind logs, had their rifles drawn 
on 3^ou not more than three hundred yards away. They 
were very near shooting you, when they discovered that 
you had no arms, and concluded you must be the right 
sort of people. In the distance you look like Home 
Guards — part of you dressed as citizens, one in Rebel 



1865.] A Rebel Guerrilla Killed. 479 

uniform, and two wearing Yankee overcoats. You are 
unsafe traveling a single mile through this region, with- 
out sending word beforehand who you are." 

After dark we were shown to a barn, where we wrap- 
ped ourselves in quilts. During the last twenty-four 
hours we had journeyed twenty-five miles, equal to fifty 
upon level roads, and our eye-lids were very heavy. 

XVIII. Wednesday, Janua/ry 4. 

This settlement was intensely loyal, and admirably 
picketed by Union women, children, and bushwhackers. 
We dined with the wife of a former inmate of Castle 
Thunder. She told us that Lafayette Jones, whose 
escape from that prison I have already recorded, re- 
mained in the Rebel army only a few days, deserting 
from it to the Union lines, and then coming back to his 
Tennessee home. 

The Rebel guerrilla captain who originally captured 
him was notoriously cruel, had burned houses, murdered 
Union men, and abused helpless women. He took from 
Jones two hundred dollars in gold, promising to forward 
it to his family, but never did so. After reaching home, 
Jones sent a message to him that he must refund the 
money at once, or be killed wherever found. Jones finally 
sought him. As they met, the gueriilla drew a revolver 
and fired, but without wounding his antagonist. There- 
upon Jones shot him dead on his own threshold. The 
Union people justified and applauded the deed. Jones 
was afterward captain in a loyal Tennessee regiment. 
His father had died in a Richmond dungeon, one of his 
brothers in an Alabama prison, and a second had been 
hung by the Rebels. 

The woman told us that another guerrilla, peculiarly 
obnoxious to the Loyalists, had disappeared early ia 



480 Meeting a former Fellow-Prisoner. [ises. 

November. A few days before we arrived, Ms "bones 
were found in the woods, with twenty-one bullet-holes 
through his clothing. His watch and money were still 
undisturbed in his pocket. Vengeance, not avarice, stim- 
ulated his destroyers. 

Here we met another of our Castle Thunder fellow- 
prisoners, named Guy. The Richmond authorities knew 
he was a Union bushwhacker, and had strong evidence 
against him, which would have cost him his life if 
brought to trial. But he, too, under an assumed name, 
enlisted in the Rebel army, deserted, returned to Tennes- 
see, and resumed his old pursuit as a hunter of men with 
new zeal and vigor. 

He and his companion were now armed with sixteen- 
shooter rifles, revolvers, and bowie-knives. Guy' s father 
and brother had both been killed by the guerrillas, and 
he was bitter and unsparing. If he ever fell into Rebel 
hands again, his life was not worth a rush-light. But he 
was merry and jocular as if he had never heard of the 
King of Terrors. I asked him how he now regarded his 
Richmond adventures. He replied : 

"I would not take a thousand dollars in gold for the 
experience I had Avhile in prison ; but I would not endure 
it again for ten thousand." 

Guy and his comrade were supposed to be "lying 
out," which suggested silent and stealthy movements; 
but on leaving us they went yelling, singing, and scream- 
ing up the valley, whooping like a whole tribe of Indians. 
Occasionally they fired their rifles, as if their vocal organs 
were not noisy enough. It was ludicrously strange de- 
portment for hunted fugitives. 

" Guy always goes through the country in that way," 
said the woman. " He is very reckless and fearless. Tlie 
Rebels know it, and give him a wide field. He has killed 



1865.] Alarm About Rebel Cavalry. 481 

a good many of them, first and last, and no doubt they 
will murder him, sooner or later, as they did his fa- 
ther." 

At night, just as we were comfortably asleep in the 
barn, our host awakened us, saying : 

"Five Rebel cavalry are reported approaching this 
neighborhood, with three hundred more behind them, 
coming over the mountains from ISTorth Carolina, I think 
it is true, but am not certain. I am so well known as a 
Union man, that, if they do come, they will search my 
premises thoroughly. There is another barn, much more 
secluded, a mile farther up the valley, where you wiH be 
safer than here, and will compromise nobody if discov- 
ered. If they arrive, you shall be informed before they 
can reach you." 

Coleridge did not believe in ghosts, because he had 
seen too many of them. So we were skeptical concerning 
the Rebel cavalry, having heard too much of it. But we 
went to the other barn, and in its ample straw-loft found 
a IN'orth Carolina refugee, with whom we slept undis- 
turbed. He deemed this place much safer than his home 
• — a gratifying indication to us that the danger was grow- 
ing small by degrees. 

XIX. Thursday, January 5. 

This morning, the good woman whose barn had shel- 
tered us mended our tattered clothing. Her husband 
was a soldier in the Union service. I asked her : 
"How do you live and support your family ?" 
"Very easily," she replied. "Last year, I did all my 
own housework, and weaving, spinning, and knitting, 
and raised over a hundred bushels of corn, with no 
assistance whatever except from this little girl, eleven 
years old. The hogs run in the woods during the sum- 

31 



482 A Stanch Old Unionist. [ises. 

mer, feeding themselves ; so we are in no danger of star- 
vation." 

Boothby's company, enhanced "by the two Rebel de- 
serters from Petersburg, and a yonng conscript, formerly 
one of our prison-guards at Salisbury, here rejoined us. 
Our entire party, numbering ten, started again at 3 p. m. 

The road was over Stony Mountain, very rocky and 
steep. As we halted wearily upon its summit, we over- 
looked a great waste of mountains, intersected with green 
valleys of pine and fir, threaded by silver streams. Our 
guide assured us that, at Carter's Depot, one hundred 
and ten miles east of Knoxville, we should find Union 
troops. Soon after dark, to our disappointment and in- 
dignation, he declared that he must turn back without 
a moment's delay. His long-deferred explanation that 
the young wife, whom he had left at his lonely log 
house, was about to endure 

"The pleasing punishment which women bear," 

mollified our wrath, and we bade him good-by. 

After dark we found our way, deviously, around 
several dwellings, to the house of an old Union man. 
"With his wife and three bouncing daughters, he heartily 
welcomed us : 

"I am very glad to see you ; I have been looking for 
you these two hours." 

' ' Why did you expect us ?" 

' ' We learned yesterday that there were ten Yankees, 
one in red breeches and a Rebel uniform, over the 
mountain. Girls, make a fire in the kitchen, and get 
supper for these gentlemen !" 

While we discussed the meal and a great bucket 
of rosy apples before the roaring fire, our host — silver- 
haired, deep-chested, brawny-limbed, a splendid speci- 



1865.] The most Dangerous Point. 483 

men of physical manliood — poured out liis heart. He 
was devoted to the Union, with a zeal passing the love of 
women. How intensely he hated the Rebels ! How his 
eyes flashed and dilated as he talked of the old flag ! 
How perfect his faith that he should live to see it again 
waving triumphantly on his native mountains ! One of 
his sons had died fighting for his country, and two others 
were still in the Union army. 

The old gentleman piloted us through the deep 
woods, for three miles, to a friendly house. We were 
now near a rendezvous of Rebel guerrillas, reported to 
be without conscience and without mercy. Their settle- 
ment was known through that whole region as "Little 
Richmond." We must pass within a quarter of a mile 
of them. It was feared that they might have pickets out, 
and the point was deemed more dangerous than any 
since leaving Salisbury, 

Our new friend, though an invalid, promptly rose 
from his bed to guide us through the danger. His wife 
greeted us cordially, but was extremely apprehensive — 
darting to and from the door, and in conversation sud- 
denly pausing to listen. When we started, she said, 
taking both my hands in hers : 

' ' May God prosper you, and carry you safely through 
to those you love. But you must be very cautious. 
Less than six weeks ago, my two brothers started for the 
North by the same route ; and when they reached Crab 
Orchard, the Rebel guerrillas captured them, and mur- 
dered them in cold blood." ' 

After leading us two miles, the guide stopped, and 
when all came up, he whispered : 

"We are approaching the worst place. Let no man' 
speak a word. Step lightly as possible, while I keep aa 
far ahead as you can see me. If you hear any noise, dart 



484 The All-devouring Vermin. [ises. 

out of sight at once. Should I Ibe discovered with you, 
it would be certain death to me. If found alone, I can 
tell some story about sickness in my family." 

We crept softly behind him for two miles. Then, 
leading us through a rocky pasture into the road, he 
said : 

" Thank God ! I have brought another party of the 
right sort of people past Little Richmond in safety. 
My health is broken, and I shall not live long ; but it is a 
great consolation to know that I have been able to help 
some men who love the Union made by our fathers." 

Directing us to a stanch Unionist, a few mUes be- 
yond, he returned home. 

At three in the morning, we reached our destination. 
Davis and Boothby did pioneer duty, going forward to 
the house, where they were received by a clamor of 
dogs, which made the valleys ring. After a whispered 
conference with the host, they returned and said : 

"There is a Rebel traveler spending the night here. 
We are to stay in the barn until morning, when he will 
be gone." 

We burrowed in the warm hay-mow, and vainly es- 
sayed to sleep. The aU-devouring vermin by .this time 
swarmed upon us, poisoning our blood and stimulating 
every nerve, as we tossed wearily until long after day- 
light. 

, XX. Friday, January 6. 

At nine o'clock this morning our host came to the 
hay -loft and awoke us : 

" My troublesome guest is gone ; walk down to break- 
fast." 

He was educated, intelligent, and had been a leader 
among the "Conservative" or Union people, until com- 



1865.] More Union Soldiers. 485 

pelled to acquiesce, nominally, in the war. His house 
and family were pleasant. But while we now Ibegan to 
approach civilization, the Union lines steadily receded. 
He informed us that we would find no loyal troops east 
of Jonesboro, ninety-eight miles from Knoxville, and 
probably none east of Greenville, seventy-four miles 
from Knoxville. 

"But," said he, "you are out of the woods for the 
present. You are on the border of the largest Union 
settlement in all the Rebel States. You may walk 
for twenty-four miles by dajdight on the public road. 
Look out for strangers. Home Guards, or Rebel guer- 
rillas ; but you will find every man, woman, and child, 
who lives along the route, a stanch and faithful 
friend." 

With light hearts we started down the valley. It 
seemed strange to travel the public road by daylight, 
visit houses openly, and look people in the face. 

Our way was on the right bank of the Watauga, a 
broad, flashing stream, walled in by abrupt cliffs, cov- 
ered with pines and hemlocks. A woman on horseback, 
with her little son on foot, accompanied us for several 
miles, saying : 

"If you travel alone, you are in danger of being shot 
for Rebel guerrillas." 

In the evening a Union man rowed us across the 
stream. On the left bank our eyes were gladdened by 
three of our boys in blue — United States soldiers at home 
on furlough. Seeing us in the distance, they leveled 
their rifles, but soon discovered that we were not foes. 

Our host for the night beguiled the evening hours 
with stories of the war ; and again we enjoyed the lux- 
ury of beds. 



486 A Well-Fortified Refuge. [ises. 

XXI. Saturday, January 7. 

A friend piloted ns eight miles over the rough, snowy 
mountains, avoiding public roads. In the afternoon, we 
found shelter at a white frame house, nestling among the 
mountains, and fronted by a natural lawn, dotted with firs. 

Here, for the first time, we were entirely safe. Any 
possible Rebel raid must come from the south side of the 
river. The house was on the north bank of the stream, 
which was too much swollen for fording, and the only 
canoe within five miles was fastened on our shore. Thus 
fortified on front, flank, and rear, we took our ease in the 
pleasant, home-like farmhouse. 

Near the dwelling was a great spring, of rare beauty. 
Within an area of twelve feet, a dozen streams, larger 
than one's arm, came gushing and boiling up through 
snow-white sand. By the aid of a great fire, and an 
enormous iron kettle, we boiled all our clothing, and at 
last vanquished the troublesome enemies which, brought 
from the prison, had so long disturbed our peace. 

Then, bathing in the icy waters, we came out re- 
newed, like the Syrian leper, and, in soft, clean beds, 
enjoyed the sweet sleep of childhood. 

XXn. Sunday, January 8. 

A new guide took us eight miles to a log barn in the 
woods. After dining among, but not upon, the husks, 
we started again, an old lady of sixty guiding us through 
the woods toward her house. Age had not withered 
her, nor custom staled, for she walked at a pace which 
made it difficult to keep irf sight of her. 

. At dark, in the deep pines, behind her lonely dwell- 
ing, we kindled a fire, supped, and, with fifteen or twenty 
companions, who had joined us so noiselessly that they 
seemed to spring from earth, we started on. 



1865.] Dan Ellis, the Union Guide. 487 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

If I have wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn. ' 

— Midsummer Night's Dkkam. 

Foe many months Ibefore leaving prison, we had been 
familiar with the name of Dan Ellis — a famous Union 
guide, who, since the beginning of the war, had done 
nothing but conduct loyal men to our lines. 

Ellis is a hero, and his life a romance. He had taken 
through, in all, more than four thousand persons. He 
had probably seen more adventure — in fights and races 
with the Rebels, in long journeys, sometimes bare-footed 
and through the snow, or swimming rivers full of float- 
ing ice — ^than any other person living. 

He never lost but one man, who was swooped up 
through his own heedlessness. The party had traveled 
eight or ten days, living upon nothing but parched corn. 
Dan insisted that a man could walk twenty-five miles a 
day through snow upon parched corn just as well as 
upon any other diet — if he only thought so. I feel bound 
to say that I have tried it and do not think so. This 
person held the same opinion. He revolted against the 
parched-corn diet, vowing that he would go^to the first 
house and get an honest meal, if he was captured for it. 
He went to the first house, obtained the meal, and was 
captured. 

After we had traveled fifty miles, everybody said to 
us, "If you can only find Dan Ellis, and do just as he 
tells you, you will be certain to get through." 

We did find Dan Ellis. On this Sunday night, one 



488 In Good Hands at Last. [isest 

Imndred and thirty-four miles irom our lines, greatly 
broken down, we readied a point on the road, waited 
for two hours, when along came Dan Ellis, with a party 
of seventy men — refugees, Rebel deserters. Union sol- 
diers returning from their homes within the enemy's 
lines, and escaping prisoners. About thirty of them 
were mounted and twenty armed. 

Like most men of action, Dan was a man of few 
words. When our story had been told Mm, he said to 
his comrades : 

"Boys, here are some gentlemen who have escaped 
from Salisbury, and are almost dead from the journey. 
They are our people. They have suffered in our Cause. 
They are going to their homes in our lines, "We can't 
ride and let these men walk. Get down off your horses, 
and help them up." 

Down they came, and up we went ; and then we 
pressed along at a terrible pace. 

In low conversation, as we rode through the darkness, 
I learned from Dan and his companions something of his 
strange, eventful history. At the outbreak of the war, he 
was a mechanic in East Tennessee. After once going 
through the mountains to the Union lines, he displayed 
rare capacity for woodcraft, and such vigilance, energy, 
and wisdom, that he fell naturally into the pursuit of a 
pilot. 

Six or eight of his men, who had been with him from 
the beginning, were almost equally familiar with the 
routes. They lived near him, in Carter County, Ten- 
nessee, in open defiance of the Rebels. When at home, 
they usually slept in the woods, and never parted from 
their arms for a single moment. 

As the Rebels would show them no mercy, they could 
not afford to be captured. For three years there had 




Dan. Ellis. 



1865.] An Unequal Battle — Ellis's Bravery. 489 

been a standing offer of five thousand dollars for Dan 
Ellis's head. During that period, except when within 
our lines, he had never permitted his Henry rifle, which 
would fire sixteen times without reloading, to go beyond 
the reach of his hand. 

Once, when none of his comrades, except Lieutenant 
Treadaway, were with him, fourteen of the Rebels came 
suddenly upon them. Ellis and Treadaway dropped be- 
hind logs and began to fire their rifles. As the enemy 
pressed them, they fell slowly back into a forest, con- 
tinuing to shoot from behind trees. The unequal skir- 
mish lasted three hours. Several Rebels were wounded, 
and at last they retreated, leaving the two determined 
Unionists unharmed and masters of the field. 

Dan usually made the trip to our lines once in three 
or four weeks, leading through from forty to five hun- 
dred persons. Before starting, he and his comrades 
would make a raid upon the Rebels in some neigh- 
boring county, take from them all the good horses they 
could find, and, after reaching Knoxville, sell them to the 
United States quartermaster. 

Thus they obtained a livelihood, though nothing 
more. The refugees and escaping prisoners were usual- 
ly penniless, and Ellis, whose sympathies fiowed toward 
all loyal men like water, was compelled to feed them 
during the entire journey. He always remunerated 
Union citizens for provisions purchased from them. 

To-night was so cold, that our sore, lame joiats would 
hardly support us upon our horses. Dan' s rapid march- 
ing was the chief secret of his success. He seemed deter- 
mined to keep at least one day ahead of all Rebel 
pursuers. 

Now that we were safe in his hands, I accompanied 
the party mechanically, with no further questions or 



490 Lost! — A Perilous Blunder. [isgs. 

anxiety alboiit routes ; but I chanced to hear Treadaway 
ask Mm : 

" Don't you suppose the Nolechucky is too high for 
us to ford?" 

" Yery likely," replied Dan ; "we will stop and in- 
quire of Barnet." 

Upon the mule which I rode, a sack of corn served 
for a saddle. I was not accomplished in the peculiar 
gymnastics required to sit easily upon it and keep it in 
place. 

Thirsty and feverish, I stopped at the crossing of Rock 
Creek for a draught of water and to adjust the corn- 
sack. Attempting to remount, I was as stiff and awk- 
ward as an octogenarian, and my restive mule would not 
stand for a moment. I finally succeeded in climhing upon 
his hack two or three minutes after the last horseman 
disappeared up the hank. 

We had heen traveling across forests, over hUls, 
through swamps, without regard to thoroughfares ; hut 
I rode carelessly on, supposing that my mule' s instinct 
would keep him on the fresh scent of the cavalcade. 
When we had jogged along for ten minutes, awakening 
from a little reverie, I listened vainly to hear the foot- 
falls of the horses. All was silent. I dismounted, and 
examined the half-frozen road, hut no hoof-marks could 
he seen upon it. 

I was lost ! It might mean recapture — it might mean 
reimprisonment and death, for the terms were nearly 
synonymous. I was ignorant ahout the roads, and 
whether I was in a Union or Rebel settlement. 

To search for that noiseless, steall^hy party would be 
useless ; so I rode back to the creek, tied my mule to a 
laurel in the dense thicket, and sat down upon a log, 
pondering on my stupid heedlessness, which seemed 



1865] A Most Fortunate Encounter. 491 

likely to meet its just reward. I remembered that Davis 
owed Ms original capture to a mule, and wondered if 
the same cause was albout to produce for me a like 
result. 

Mentally anathematizing my long-eared Ibrute, I gave 
him a part of the corn, and threw myself down behind a 
log, directly beside the road. This would enable me to 
hear the horse's feet of any one who might return for me. 
In a few minutes I was sound asleep. 

When awakened by the cold, my watch told me that 
it was three o'clock. Running to and fro in the thicket 
until my blood was warmed, I resumed my position 
behind the log, and slept until daylight was gleaming 
through the forest. 

Walking back to the creek, I reconnoitered a log 
dwelling, so small and humble that its occupant was 
probably loyal. In a few minutes, through the early 
dawn, an old man, with a sack of corn upon his shoulder, 
came out of the house. He evinced no surprise at seeing 
me. Looking earnestly into his eyes, I asked him : 

"Are you a Union man or a Secessionist?" He 
replied : 

" I don't know who you are ; but I am a Union man, 
and always have been." 

"lam a stranger and in trouble. I charge you to 
tell me the truth." 

" I do tell you the truth, and I have two sons in the 
United States army." 

His manner appeared sincere, and he carried a letter of 
recommendation in his open, honest face. I told him my 
awkward predicament. He reassured me at once. 

"I know Dan Ellis as well as my own brother. H^o 
truer man ever lived. What route was he going to 
take ?" 



492 Rejoining Dan and his Party. [i865. 

"I heard Mm say sometMng abont Barnet's." 

*' That is a ford only five miles from here. Barnet is 
one of the right sort of people. This road will take you 
to his house. Good-by, my friend, and don't get separ- 
ated from your party again." 

I certainly did not need the last injunction. Reach- 
ing the ford, Barnet told me that our party had spent 
several hours in crossing, and was encamped three miles 
ahead. He took me over the river in his canoe, my mule 
swimming behind. Half a mile down the road, I met 
Ellis and Treadaway. 

"Ah ha!" said Dan, " we were looking for you. I 
told the boys not to be uneasy. There are men in our 
crowd who would have blundered upon some Rebel, 
told all about us, and so alarmed the country and 
brought out the Home Guards ; but I knew you were 
discreet enough to take care of yourself, and not en- 
danger us. Let us breakfast at this Union house." 

XXin. Monday, January 9, 

"To-day," said Dan Ellis, "we must cross the Big 
Butte of Rich Mountain." 

" How far is it ?" I asked. 

"It is generally called ten miles ; but I suspect it 
is about fifteen, and a rather hard road at that." 

About fifteen, and a rather hard road ! It seemed 
fifty, and a very Via Dolorosa. 

We started at 11 a. m. For three miles we followed 
a winding creek, the horsemen on a slow trot, crossing 
the stream a dozen times ; the footmen keeping up as 
best they could, and shivering from their frequent baths 
in the icy waters. 

We turned up the sharp side of a snowy mountain. 
For hours and hours we toiled along, up one rocky, 



1865.] A Terrible Mountain March. 493 

pine-covered Mil, down a little declivity, then np an- 
other hUl, then down again, but constantly gaining in 
hight. The snow was ten inches deep. Dan averred he 
had never crossed the mountain when the travel was 
so hard ; but he pushed on, as if death were behind 
and heaven before. 

The rarity of the air at that elevation increased my 
pneumonic difficulty, and rendered my breath very 
short. Ellis furnished me with a horse the greater part 
of the way ; but the hills, too steep for riding, com- 
pelled us to climb, our poor animals following behind. 
The pithy proverb, that "it is easy to walk when one 
leads a horse by the bridle," was hardly true in my 
case, for it seemed a hundred times to-day as if I 
could not possibly take another step, but must fall 
out by the roadside, and let the company go on. But 
after my impressive lesson of last night, I was hardly 
likely to halt so long as any locomotive power re- 
mained. 

Our men and animals, in single file, extended for 
more than a mile in a weary, tortuous procession, which 
dragged its slow length along. After hours which 
appeared interminable, and efforts which seemed impos- 
sible, we halted upon a high ridge, brushed the snow 
from the rocks, and sat down to a cold lunch, beside 
a clear, bright spring which gushed vigorously from the 
ground. I ventured to ask : 

"Are we near the top ?" 

"About half way up," was Dan's discouraging 
reply. 

"Come, come, boys; we must pull out!" urged 
Davis ; and, following that irrepressible invalid, we 
moved forward again. 

As we climbed hiU. after hill, thinking we had 



494 A Storm Increases the Discomforts. [i865. 

nearly reached the summit, "beyond ns would still rise 
another mountain a little higher than the one we stood 
upon. They seemed to stretch out to the crack of 
doom. 

To increase the discomfort, a violent rain came on. The 
very memory of this day is wearisome. I pause, thank- 
ful to end only a chapter, in the midst of an experience 
which, judged Iby my own feelings, appeared likely tq 
end life itself. 



1865.] Fording Creeks in the Darkness. 495 



CHAPTER XLVII. 



Ithath been the longest night 

That e'er I watched, and the most heaviest. 

Two Gentlemen op Vbeona. 



-But for this miracle — 



I mean our preservation — few in millions 
Can speak like ua. 

Tempest. 

As I toiled, staggering, up each successive liill, it 
seemed that this terrible climbing and this torturing day 
would never end. But Necessity and Hope work 
miracles, and strength proved equal to the hour. 

At 4 p. M. the clouds broke, the sun burst out, as 
we stood on the icy summit, revealing a grand view of 
mountains, valleys, and streams on every side. 

After a brief halt, we began the descent. Our path, 
trodden only by refugees and prisoners, led by Dan 
Ellis, had been worn so deep by the water, that, in many 
places, our bodies were half concealed ! How Dan 
rushed down those steep declivities ! It was easy to fol- 
low now, and I kept close behind him. 

Twilight, dusk, darkness, came on, and again the rain 
began to pour down. We could not see each other five 
yards away. We pressed steadily on. We reached the 
foot of the mountain, and were in a dark, pine-shadowed, 
winding road, which frequently crossed a swollen, foam- 
ing creek. At first Dan hunted for logs ; but the darkness 
made this slow work. He finally abandoned it, and, 
whenever we came to a stream, plunged in up to the 
middle, dashed through, and rushed on, with dripping 
garments. Our cavalcade and procession must have 
stretched back fully three miles ; but every man endea- 



496 Prospect op a Dreary Night. [isgs. 

vored to keep witMn shouting distance of Ms immediate 
predecessor. 

"We shall camp to-night," said Dan, "at a lonely 
house two miles from the foot of the mountain." 

Reaching the place, we found that, since his last 
journey, this dwelling had tumbled down, and nothing 
was left l)ut a lahyrinth of timl)ers and boards. We 
laboriously propped up a section of the roof. It proved 
a little protection from the dripping rain, and, while the 
rest of the party slowly straggled in, Treadaway went to 
the nearest Union house, to learn the condition of the 
country. In fifteen minutes we heard the tramp of his 
returning horse, and could see a fire-brand glimmering 
through the darkness, 

" Something wrong here," said Dan. "There must 
be danger, or he would not bring fire, expecting us to 
stay out of doors such a night as this. What is the 
news, Treadaway?" 

"Bad enough," replied the lieutenant, dismounting 
from his dripping horse, carefully nursing, between two 
pieces of board, the glowing firebrand. "The Rebel 
guerrillas are thick and vigilant. A party of them passed 
here only this evening. I teU. you, Dan EUis, we have 
got to keep a sharp eye out, if we don't want to be 
picked up." 

All who could find room huddled under the poorly 
propped roof, which threatened to fall and crush them. 
Dan and his immediate comrades, with great readiness, 
improvised a little camp for themselves, so thatching it 
with boards and shingles that it kept the water off their 
heads. They were soon asleep, grasping their inseparable 
rifles and near their horses, from which they never per- 
mitted themselves to be far away. 

With my two journalistic friends, I deemed rest 




The " Nameless Heroine. " 



1865.] Sleeping Among the Husks. 497 

nearly as important as safety, for we needed to accumu- 
late strength. We found our way through the darkness 
to the nearest Union house. There was a great fire 
iDlazing on the hearth ; hut the little room was crowded 
with our weary and soaking companions, who had anti- 
cipated us. 

We crossed the creek to another dwelling, where 
the occupant, a life-long invalid, was intensely loyal. 
With his wife and little son, he greeted us very warm- 
ly, adding: 

" I msh I could keep you in my house ; hut it would 
not he safe. We will give you quilts, and you may 
sleep among the husks in the barn, where you will be 
warm and dry. If the Guards come during the night, 
they will be likely to search the house first, and the boy 
or the woman can probably give you warning. But, if 
they do find you, of course you will tell them that we 
are not privy to your concealment, because, you know, 
it would be a matter of life and death for me." 

We found the husks dry and fragrant, and soon for- 
got our weariness. 

XXrV. Tuesday, January 10. 

Breakfasting before daylight, that we might not be 
seen leaving the house, we sought our rendezvous. Those 
who had remained in camp were a wet, cold, sorry-look- 
ing party. 

By nine o'clock, several, who had been among the 
Union people in the neighborhood, returned, and held a 
consultation. The accounts of all agreed that, fifteen or 
twenty miles ahead, the danger was great, and the 
country exceedingly difiicult to pass through. More- 
over, the Union forces still appeared to recede as we 
approached the places where they were reputed to be. 
We were now certain that there were none at Jonesboro, 

32 



498 Turning Back in Discouragement. [isgs. 

none at Greenville, probaWy none east of Strawberry 
Plains. 

Eiglit or ten of our party determined to turn back. 
Among them were three Union soldiers, who had seen 
service and peril. But they said to us, as they turned 
to retrace their steps over Rich Mountain : 

"It is useless to go on. The party will never get 
through in the world. Not a single man of it will reach 
Knoxville, unless he waits till the road is clear." 

Ellis and Treadaway listened to them with a quiet 
smile. The perils ahead did not disturb our serenity, 
because they were so much lighter than the perils be- 
hind. We had left horrors to which all future possi- 
bilities were a mercy. We had looked in at the win- 
dows of Death, and stood upon the verge of the Life To 
Be. We doubted not that the difficulties were greatly 
magnified, and all dangers looked infinitesimal, along 
the path leading toward home and freedom. 

Among those who went back was a IN'orth Carolina 
citizen, accompanied by a little son, the child of his 
old age. Reluctant to trust himself again to the tender 
mercies of the Rebels, he was unaccustomed to the war- 
path, and decided to return to the ills he had, rather 
than fly to others which he knew not of. Purchasing 
one of his horses, I was no longer dependent upon the 
kindness of Ellis and his comrades for a steed. 

Before noon we started, following secluded valley 
paths. The rain ceased and the day was pleasant. At 
a Union dwelling we came upon the hot track of eight 
guerrillas, who had been there only an hour before. The 
Rebel-hunting instinct waxed strong within Dan, and, 
taking eight of his own men, he started in fierce pursuit, 
leaving Treadaway in charge of the company. 

Before dark we reached Kelly's Gap, camping in an 



1865,] A Rebel Prisoner Brought In. 499 

old orchard, "beside a large farm-house with many ample 
out-buildings. The place was now deserted. One of 
our guides explained : 

*' A Union man lived here, and he was hanged last 
year upon that apple-tree. They cut him down, how- 
ever, before he died, and he fled from the country." 

Tying our horses to the trees, we parched corn for 
supper. Fires were kindled in the buildings, giving the 
place a genial appearance as night closed in. 

After dark, Dan and his comrades returned. The 
whole party of guerrillas had very narrowly escaped them. 
They captured one, and brought him in a prisoner. One 
of the out-buildings was cleared, and he was placed in it, 
under two volunteer guards armed with rifles. He was 
not more than twenty-two years old, and had a heavy, 
stolid face. He steadily denied that he was a guerrilla, 
asserting that he had been in the Rebel army, had 
deserted from it, taken the oath of allegiance to the 
United States while at Knoxville, and was now trying to 
live quietly. 

Some of Ellis's men believed that he had broken 
his oath of allegiance, and was the most obnoxious of 
the guerrillas. In his presence they discussed freely the 
manner of disposing of him. Some advocated taking 
him to Knoxville, and turning him over to the authori- 
ties. Others, who seemed to be a majority, urged taking 
him out into the orchard and shooting him. This coun- 
sel seemed likely to prevail. Several of the men who 
gave it had seen brothers or fathers murdered by the 
Rebels. 

The prisoner had little intelligence, and talked only 
when addressed. I could but admire the external stolid- 
ity with which he listened to these discussions. One of 
his judges and would-be executioners asked liim : 



500 An Alarm at Midnight. [1865. 

" Well, sir, what have jou to say for yourself?" 

"I am in your hands," lie replied, without moving a 
muscle ; " you can kill me if you want to ; but I have 
kept the oath of allegiance, and I am innocent of the 
charges you bring against me." 

After some further debate, a Union officer from East 
Tennessee said . 

"He may deserve death, and he probably does. But 
we are not murderers, and he shall not be shot. I will 
use my own revolver on anybody who attempts it. Let 
us hear no more of these taunts. No brave man will 
insult a prisoner." 

It was at last decided to take him to Knoxville. He 
bore this decision with the same silence he had mani- 
fested at the prospect of death. 

During this scene Dan was absent. He had gone to 
the nearest Union house to learn the news, for every 
loyal family in a range of many hundred miles knew and 
loved him. We, very weary, lay down to sleep in an 
old orchard, with our saddles for pillows. Our reflec- 
tions were pleasant. We were only seventy-nine miles 
from the Union lines. We progressed swimmingly, and 
had even begun to regulate the domestic affairs of the 
border ! 

Before midnight some one shook my arm. I rub- 
bed my eyes open and looked up. There was Dan 
ElHs. 

' ' Boys, we must saddle instantly. We have walked 
right into a nest of Rebels. Several hundred are within 
a few miles ; eighty are in this immediate vicinity. They 
are lying in ambush for Colonel Kirk and his men. It is 
doubtful whether we can ever get out of this. We must 
divide into two parties. The footmen must take to the 
mountains; we who are riding, and in much greater 



1865.] A Young Lady for a Guide. 501 

danger — as horses make more noise, and leave so 
many traces — must press on at once, if we ever liope 
to." 

The word was passed in low tones. Our late pris- 
oner, no longer an object of interest, was allowed to 
wander away at his own sweet will. Flinging our 
saddles upon our weary horses, we were in motion 
almost instantly. My place was near the middle of the 
cavalcade. The man just l)efore me was riding a white 
horse, which enahled me to follow him with ease. 

We galloped along at Dan' s usual pace, with suhlime 
indifference to roads — up and down rocky hills, across 
streams, through swamps, over fences — everywhere but 
upon public thoroughfares. 

I suposed we had traveled three miles, when Davis 
fell back from the front, and said to me : 

" That young lady rides very well, does she not ?" 

''What young lady?" 

" The young lady who is piloting us." 

I had thought Dan Ellis was piloting us, and rode for- 
ward to see about the young lady. 

There she was ! I could not scrutinize her face in the 
darkness, but it was said to be comely. I could see 
that her form was graceful, and the ease and firmness 
with which she sat on her horse would have been a 
lesson for a riding-master. 

She was a member of the loyal family to which Dan 
had gone for news. The moment she learned his need, 
she volunteered to pilot him out of that neighborhood, 
where she was born and bred, and knew every acre. 
The only accessible horse (one belonging to a Rebel 
officer, but just then kept in her father's barn) was 
brought out and saddled. She mounted, came to our 
camp at midnight, and was now stealthily guiding us — 



502 The Naiieless Heroine. [i865. 

avoiding farm-liouses where the Re"bels were quartered, 
going round their camps, evading their pickets. 

She led us for seven miles. Then, while we remained 
in the wood, she rode forward over the long l3ridge 
which spanned the Nolechucky River (now to Ibe crossed 
a second time), to see if there were any guards upon it ; 
went to the first Union house T^eyond, to learn whether 
the roads were picketed ; came hack, and told us the 
coast was clear. Then she rode hy our long line toward 
her home. Had it heen safe to cheer, we should cer- 
tainly have given three times three for the Nameless 
Heroine* who did us such vital kindness. "Benisons 
upon her dear head forever !" 

* Nameless no more. The sntstantial closing of the "war, while these 
pages are in press, renders it safe to give her name — Miss Mklvina 
Stevens. 



1865.] Among the Delectable Mountains. 503 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 



■ Fortune is merry. 



And in this mood will give us any thing. 

JtrLius CaisAK. 
The night is long that never finds the day. 

MACEETIf. 

Relieved again from immediate danger, every thing 
seemed like a "blessed dream. I was haunted by the 
fear of waking to find myself in the old l^nnk at Salis- 
bury, with its bare and squalid surroundings. 

We were often compelled to walk and lead our 
weary animals. The rushing creeks were perilous to 
cross by night. The rugged mountains were appall- 
ing to our aching limbs and frost-bitten feet. The Union 
houses, where we obtained food and counsel, were often 
humble and rude. But we had vanquished the Giant 
Despair, and come up from the Valley of the Shadow 
of Death. To our eyes, each icy stream was the River 
of Life. The frowning cliffs, with their cruel rocks, were 
the very Delectable Mountains ; and every friendly log 
cabin was the Palace called Beautiful. 

After our fair guide left us, Dan's foot was on his 
native heath. Familiar with the road, he pressed on like 
a Fate, without mercy to man or beast. After the late 
heavy rains it was now growing intensely cold. A crust, 
not yet hard enough to bear, was forming upon the mud, 
and at every step our poor horses sunk to the fetlocks. 

Even with frequent walking I found it difficult to 
keep np the circulation in my own sensitive feet ; but 
the severe admonition of one frost-bite had taught me 
to be very cautious. A young North Carolinian, riding 



504 Separation from "Junius." [isgs, 

a mule, wore nothing upon Ms feet except a pair of 
cotton stockings ; that he kept from freezing is one of the 
unsolved mysteries of human endurance. 

Passing a few miles north of Greenville, at four 
o'clock in the morning, we had accomplished twenty- 
five miles, despite all our weakness and weariness. 

This l)rought us to Lick Creek, which proved too 
much swollen for fording. An old Loyalist, living on 
the bank, assured us that guerrillas were numerous and 
vigilant. Should we never leave them behind ? 

Ascending the stream for three miles, we crossed upon 
the only bridge in that whole region. Here, at least, 
our rear was protected ; because, if pursued, we could 
tear up the planks. Soon after dawn, upon a hill-side 
in the pine woods, we dismounted, and huddled around 
our fires, a weary, hungry, morose, and melancholy 
company. 

XXV. Wednesday, January 11. 

As we drowsed upon the pine leaves, I asked : 

"When shall we join the footmen ?" 

" After we reach Knoxville," was Dan Ellis's reply. 

This was a source of uneasiness to Davis and myself, 
because we had left "Junius" behind. He was offered 
a horse when we started, at midnight. Supposing, like 
ourselves, that the parties would re-unite in a few hours, 
and tired of riding without a saddle, he declined, and 
cast his lot among the footmen. It was the first separa- 
tion since our capture. Our fates had been so long cast 
together, that we meant to keep them united until 
deliverance should come for one or both, either through 
life or death. But Treadaway was an excellent pilot, 
and the footmen, able to take paths through the moun- 
tains Avhere no cavalry could follow them, would prob' 
ably have less difiiculty than we. 



1865.] Union Women Scrutinizing the Yankee. 505 

. I found an old man splitting rails, down in a wooded 
ravine two or three hundred yards from our camp. 
While he went to his house, a mile distant, to bring me 
food, I threw myself on the ground beside his fire and 
slept like a baby. In an hour, he returned with a 
basket containing a great plate of the inevitable bread 
and pork. He was accompanied by his wife and daugh- 
ter, who wanted to look at the Yankee. Coarse-featured 
and hard-handed, they were smoking long pipes ; but 
they were not devoid of womanly tenderness, and earn- 
estly asked if they could do any thing to help us. 

About noon we broke camp, and compelled our half- 
dead horses to move on. The road was clearer and safer 
than we anticipated. At the first farm which afforded 
corn, we stopped two or three hours to feed and rest the 
poor brutes. 

Three of us rode forward to a Union house, and asked 
for dinner. The woman, whose husband belonged to the 
Sixteenth (loyal) Tennessee Infantry, prepared it at once ; 
but it was an hour before we fully convinced her that 
we were not Rebels in disguise. 

We passed through Russelville soon after dark, and, 
two miles beyond, made a camp in the deep woods. 
The night was very cold, and despite the expostulations 
of Dan Ellis, who feared they belonged to a Union man, 
we gathered and fired huge piles of rails, one on either 
side of us. Making a bed between them of the soft, 
fragrant twigs of the pine, we supped upon burnt corn 
in the ear. By replenishing our great fires once an hour 
we spent the night comtortably. 

XXVI. Thursday, January 12. 

At our farm-house breakfast this morning, a sister of 
Lieutenant Treadaway was our hostess. She gave us an 



506 "Slide Down Off that Horse" [ises 

inviting meal, in wMch. coffee, sugar, and bntter, wMch 
had long been only reminiscences to us, were the leading 
constituents. 

Bj ten we were again upon the road. Two or three 
of our armed men kept the advance as scouts, hut we 
now journeyed with comparative impunity. 

Some of our young men, who had long been hunted 
by the Rebels, embraced every possible opportunity of 
turning the tables. No haste, weariness, or danger could 
induce them to omit following the track of guerrillas, 
wherever there was reasonable hope of finding the 
game. On the road to-day, one of these footmen met 
a citizen riding a fine horse. 

"What are you, Southerner or Union?" asked the 
boy, playing with the hammer of his rifle. 

"Well," replied the old Tennesseean, a good deal 
alarmed, "I have kept out of the war from the begin- 
ning ; I have not helped either side." 

"Come ! come ! That will never do. You don't take 
me for a fool, do you ? You never could have lived in 
this country without being either one thing or the other. 
Are you Union or Secession?" 

"I voted for Secession." 

"Tell the entire truth." 

"Well, sir, I do ; I have two sons in Johnson's army. 
I was an original Secessionist, and I am as good a South- 
ern man as you can find in the State of Tennessee." 

"All right, my old friend; just slide down off that 
horse." 

" What do you mean ?" 

" I mean that you are just the man I have been look- 
ing for, in walking about a hundred miles — a good 
Southerner with a good horse ! I am a Yankee ; we 
are all Yankees ; so slide down, and be quick about it." 



1865.] Friendly Words but Hostile Eyes. 507 

Accompanied Iby the clicking of tlie rifle, the injunc- 
tion was not to be despised. The rider came down, the 
boy mounted and galloped up the road, while the old 
citizen walked slowly homeward, with many a longing, 
lingering look behind. 

We traveled twenty-five miles to-day, and at night 
made our camp in the pine woods near Friend's Station. 

As the country was now comparatively safe, Davis 
and myself went in pursuit of beds. At the first house, 
two women assured us that they were good Union 
people, and very sorry they had not a single vacant 
couch. Their words were unexceptionable, but I could 
not see the welcome in their eye's. We afterward in- 
quired, and found that they were violent Rebels. 

The next dwelling was a roomy old farm-house, with 
pleasant and generous surroundings. In answer to our 
rap, a white-haired patriarch of seventy came to the 
door. 

"Can you give us supper and lodging to-night, and 
breakfast in the morning ? We will pay you liberally, 
and be greatly obliged beside." 

"I should be glad to entertain you," he replied, in 
tremulous, childish treble, "but to-night my daughters 
are all gone to a frolic. I have no one in the house 
except my wife, who, like myself, is old and feeble." 

The lady, impelled by curiosity, now appearing, we 
repeated the request to her, with all the suavity and 
persuasiveness at our command, for we were hungry 
and tired, and the place looked inviting. She dryly 
gave us the same answer, but began to talk a little. 
Presently we again inquired : 

"Will you be good enough to accommodate us, or 
must we look farther ?" 

"What are you, anyhow ?" 



508 Hospitalities of a Loyal Patriarch. [isgs. 

"Union men — Yankees, escaped from the Salisbury 
prison." 

"Why didn't you say so "before? Of course I can 
give you supper ! Come in, all of you !" The old lady 
prepared us the most palatable meal we had yet found, 
and told us the usual stories ot the war. For hours, by 
the log fire, we talked with the aged couple, who had 
three sons carrying muskets in the Union army, and 
who loyed the Cause with earnest, enthusiastic devo- 
tion. We were no longer apprehensive ; for they as- 
sured us that the Rebels had never yet searched their 
premises. 

In this respect they had been singularly fortunate. 
Theirs was the only one among the hundreds of Union 
houses we entered, which had not been despoiled by 
Rebel marauders. More than once the Confederates 
had taken from them grain and hay to the value of hun- 
dreds of dollars ; but their dwelling had always been 
respected. 

XXVn. Friday, January 13. 

My poor steed gave signs of approaching dissolution ; 
and I asked the first man I saw by the roadside : 

" Would you like a horse ?" 

"Certainly, stranger." 

"Very well, take this one." 

I handed him the bridle, and he led the animal away 
with a look of wonder ; but it could not have taken 
him long to comprehend the nature of my generosity. 
Several other horses in the party had died or were left 
behind as worthless. 

Our journey — originally estimated at two hundred 
miles — had now grown into two hundred and ninety- 
five by the roads. In view of our devious windings. 



1865.] " Out of the Mouth of Hell." 509 

we deemed tliree hundred and forty miles a very moder- 
ate estimate of the distance we had traveled. 

At ten o'clock on the morning of this twenty-seventh 
day, came our great deliverance. It was at Strawberry 
Plains, fifteen miles east of Knoxville. Here — after a 
final march of seven miles, in which our heavy feet and 
aching limbs grew wonderfully light and agile — in 
silence, with bowed heads, with full hearts and with 
wet eyes, we saluted the Old Flag.* 

* Knoxville, Tennessee, January 13, 1865* 
"Out of the jaws of Death; out of the mouth of Hell." 

Albeet D. Riohaedsok. . 
Tribune, Jantcarj/ 14, 1865. 



SONG POR THE "NAMELESS HEROINE" 



WHO AIDED THE ESCAPING PRISONERS. 
" Benisona on her dear bead forever." 

Words and Music composed by B. R. HANBY. 

(Published by JOHX Chubch, Jr., 66 West Fourth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio.) 




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